Slashdot Mirror
Getting Tech Law Info Past Filters The Eezy Way
geekotourist writes: "
The NYTimes reports that the
Tech Law Journal's emailed newsletter started misspelling words to get around filters at "law firms, universities or government agencies." Good to know that this well-informed audience (given the newsletter's content) knows the best reaction to mindless censorship: "...accepted the misspellings as a necessary evil." In future news on how to live with badly designed filters, identity theft victims will be asked to adopt new names ('cause it's a little too hard for credit card reporting agencies to provide authentication and privacy. Just ask Oprah.) And people who can't handle being pulled over for looking different will now be given blond wigs and white makeup to prevent it." (And censorware.net scooped The Times, too.)
If there are even three corectly-spelled replies to this article, I'll be surprised!!!!
;)
(and yes, I know i mis-spelled "correctly"!)
Don't we have the same thing here on Slashdot with people inserting lowercase junk to get past the lameness filter?
Another example was the 'readability checker' in use at one large company - it made sure sentences were short enough on average in all electronic mail. People got round it by adding a row of full stops to the bottom of each message.
Any computer-based attempt to filter human-readable content based on its _meaning_ is bound to fail - at least until AI gets to the stage where computers can understand as well as a human. (In other words, not for a long while...) The only kind of filtering that works is crude looking for strings, eliminating 'fuck' but allowing 'fuq'. Some people would be offended by the former but not the latter, so that kind of filtering might be useful.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
You'll love this then. For a time, I had to maintain a project that had a code module called "Product Analysis" which was mostly implemented in a file called, prodanal.c. The file was origninally implemented by a Midwestern, church-going lady who never understood why two of us younger developers would always snicker when we'd ask her a question about the Product Analysis code. I don't know why she named the file prodanal.c since it lived on the UNIX server. Although, I later found out that there was an 8.3 convention maintained on the UNIX server before I got there because developers started out with DOS/Win 3.1 machines. I started there in 1996 just after the IT dept. made the switch to Win95 and NT.
Thank the gods of UNIX I got fired from that place!
Just be sure to wear the gold uniform when you beam down -- you know what happens when you wear the red one.
This highlights the problem with filters; they're incapable of distinguishing between information that is innocuous and information that is objectionable...
This is hardly a reason to protest filters.
For nearly 90 years, my church (founded in 1892) never locked the doors. Anyone seeking refuge or just a quiet place to study long after the libraries were closed could go to the church any hour of the day. It didn't matter what your religion was so long as you had respect for the building and other folks, the church was open.
In 1982ish, after having the church vandalized a few times, the church had to start locking its doors in off hours. In the mid-1990s, it had to install a security system thanks to a serious theft and a few more vandals.
The problems with locks are the same as the problems with filters; they keep the good out along with the bad. As sad as it make me, our society is better with locks than it is without them. The same goes for filters. Filters are needed because not everyone is playing the game by the same set of rules.
Filters aren't censorship. Filters are locks. If you don't like filters, setup your own space on the internet and don't use them. And if you don't like locks, take them off your doors.
InitZero
Is it a coincidence that this idea was put forward by those defenders of the Status Quo - lawyers? I think not.
Consider, if you will, your average pornster. Next year, when filters are as ubiquitous as fundamentalist christians at a hypocrites convention, the illiterati will become well-versed in the retrieval of hot lesbean aktion. Five years from now, they'll have forgotten how to read english altogether. Soon the only people who'll be able to vote will be those who can read proper English (well, American anyway), and millions of US citizens will be disenfranchised, and the corporations will be able to install their own man, who can run roughshod over teh wishes of the rest of the planet.
Actually, now that I think of it, the idea of votes not counting in the Bastion of Democracy is laughable. Sorry for wasting your time.
Actually, even though I don't agree with filters for general usage, the filter industry couldn't get better news. Well designed filters would be able to handle such a simple end run. The challenge is now, be well-designed or hang it up.
So long and thanks for all the fish . . . !!!
Is that becasue if they were any better, then they WOULDN"T HAVE BEEN CAUGHT?
Doesn't this make misspelling a way of circumventing a content restriction system? So doesn't that make misspelling illegal under the DMCA?
A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling by Mark Twain
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.
Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.
Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
Makes perfect sense to me!
--Ford Prefect
This (misspelling to bypass filters and reach human readers) is a good way to illustrate the difference between an algorithm and innate intelligence: intelligence can compensate for inexactness quite well.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Information will always find a way... It's my favorite feature of the internet.
People shape laws. Not the other way around.
Wel, now we all konw that the misspelings on slashdot are meerly a batle against sensership.
On the other hand I'm going to have to add bom, assinate,kil, and more to my eachelon sig
________
Does anyone actually have a Java program designed to control air traffic, or for the operation of a nuclear facility?
Hmmm. And I always thought people on Slashdot were lousy spellers. But it turns out you were just protecting our freedom of speech.
My apologies to you all.
It was the episode where Homer becomes the new trash commissioner for the town, and Marge gets upset over his methods of getting rid of the garbage.
Marge: "This place is becoming a trashhole!"
Homer: "Marge, ix-nay on the asshole-tray!"
Fox censors be damned.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
Zlazhdot
W9x:Thanks for the make-work project Bill.
this shall be the "furst poast"!
(except it's not. oh well)
Does my bum look big in this?
I say good fir them! It wouldn't surprise me if some of those law firms and gov't agencies that read the TechLaw Journal are asking themselves, "If our email filter works this poorly, maybe the ones we are lobbying for in libraries and schools are POS' too!"
While this isnt the most glaring and painfull ramification of censorship it might be the pebble that starts the landslide. I hope so anyway.
BOSTON SUCKS!
Why not take the next logical step and simply encrypt the whole message using a public key system like PGP? The NYT encodes their newsletter with a "private" key, and the readers simply decode the message with the "public" key. All you have to do is make the key available on the website, and you no longer have to misspell words in order to get around the assortment of filters.
If god had intended you to be naked, you would have been born that way.