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Pot Calls Kettle Censor

Posted by jamie on from the pass-the-popcorn dept.

In the red corner, SafeSurf is the original wacky band of labelling nuts. If you've posted anything to the net without labelling it, they think you need to be sued good and hard, and if it was inappropriate for an 8-year-old you need to go to jail. In the blue corner, MAPS continues to unashamedly blacklist websites for just sharing a network with sites that "support" spam. The fun began when MAPS blacklisted SafeSurf, ensuring millions of TeleGlobe customers were silently kept off the SafeSurf site. The victim has posted a beautiful, pained whine about "stealth censorship" which includes some really awesome metaphors. It's an epic battle of ideologies. Who will win? I say... the audience.

Here's an actual quote from SafeSurf's legislative proposal, I just love this:

"Negligence [failure to label] in the absence of damages may be a civil violation of the rights of the receivers of that data, but it shall not be a criminal offense unless the data is deemed to be harmful to minors. ... Publishers may be sued in civil court by any parent who feels their children were harmed by the data negligently published. The parents shall be given presumption in all cases and do not have to prove that the content actually produced harm to their child..."

Note: since SafeSurf's press release, their site has been taken off the RBL. But for some reason TeleGlobe is still blocking them (click "trace", type "safesurf.com", and wait several minutes for the blocked pings to time out inside TeleGlobe's network). I thought this was supposed to be the realtime blackhole list. Anyway, TeleGlobe is the same ISP that promises it will not "review, censor, or edit the material that is accessible through Teleglobe's network," and adds:

Q. Does Teleglobe support blocking access to ISPs and their non-spamming customers as a method of curtailing spam?

A. No. Teleglobe believes that advocates seeking to punish unwitting collateral ISPs and users who may be tenuously linked to a spam source are acting against the best interests of the Internet community as a whole.

TeleGlobe is one of the few backbones or major ISPs that still uses the RBL to censor websites, since I think AboveNet quit doing it. Anyone know of any others?

2 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. In other metaphorical news... by A_Non_Moose · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    The skillet (slashdot) reports on the pot calling the kettle censor.

    we will either loudly hold on to our liberty or it will become clear that we gave up our rights by our silence.

    This is the reason some of us refuse to shut up on the topic

    Now before this is modded down as a troll, I don't troll. Flamebait, guilty on odd occasions. Offtopic? who does not stray off topic from time to time, eh? Over/Under rated.. ego slap/stroke... had overrated applied to me so much it is almost a punishment because it so over used (especially when it is used less than 2 to 5 minutes after posting...oye veigh!).

    Censorship takes on many forms; from the subtle "I don't like this person for reason X" lets mod him down every chance we get; to the not so subtle "Just SHUT UP, will ya!".

    In either case, is it warranted?
    In my case (and a few vocal slashdot minorities) who knows? If every time someone gets modded down the moderator has to post a 20 word reason I think there would be a change in thinking. Heck, if I got a (in vivian's voice) You're a complete bastard, and we all hate you! (end voice)...Ok, cool, that is a reason (not a good one, but a reason none the less).

    As for the Article, side A and B think they are right...somewhere in the middle is the truth.

    Read the quote again.

    Applying punishment to the many for the failure/stupidity of one is applicable in the military, not on the internet.

    Oh, well, here sometimes "It is better to be silent and thought a fool, than to start typing and prove otherwise (with apologies to the author of such wisdom..Confucious?)

    Moose out....

    --
    Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
    1. Re:In other metaphorical news... by underpaidISPtech · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      See? This is exactly what I was referring to in my first post. The parent was modded OT.
      No Shit!

      Anybody can see that it is OT, as are both my posts. So what? Whoever modded the above as offtopic needs slap. You just pissed away a mod point to state the obvious. About as useful as telling everyone the sky is blue.