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ACLU Files New DMCA Challenge

Posted by michael on from the breakin-the-law-breakin-the-law dept.

joeblowme writes "Finally, someone is stepping up to the plate to challenge the DMCA. The ACLU is filing a lawsuit on behalf of a 22-year-old programmer claiming that the law hinders the ability to effectively test internet filtering software. The story can be found here at CNet. Hopefully this will lead to one victory in reducing the scope of the DMCA." The ACLU's press release is available, as is their complaint.

5 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Test internet filtering software? by SpanishInquisition · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean that guy is paid to download porn all day?

    --
    Je t'aime Stéphanie
    1. Re:Test internet filtering software? by SquadBoy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Funny story from my old ISP days. I was a night tech support supervisor. (My first techie job) One of the services we sold was a porn filter. Well we would get cranks who would "test" the filters and send in list after list of sites they got to. Well we in tech support knew the whole thing was bunk and it is impossible to block everything but management wanted us to verify the filters anyway. So long story short we would get list after list of porn sites and asked to make sure that we could get to them through the filter. I would use the porn lists as a reward for doing things the techs did not like to do, for example doing callbacks. So yea we where paid to surf for porn at least part of the night. :)

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      Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
    2. Re:Test internet filtering software? by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hmm I can't imagine getting the full benefit of that from work. I'd be too shy to fully appreciate the porn around other guys. Ahem.

  2. Hilarious but true... by catseye · · Score: 4, Funny

    Several years ago (pre dot-bomb), I had a friend who worked in Cupertino at Spyglass Software, makers of SurfWatch. While she had a variety of duties, her primary job was to review site-block requests sent in from SurfWatch users, and as time permitted, web surf looking for sites not accounted for in the SurfWatch "blocked" database. She'd sometimes spend four or five hours a day looking primarily for new XXX sites.

    I remember she said it was bizarre to walk into an office where everyone was hard at work with hardcore pr0n on their screens.

    err, I suppose that was an unforgivable pun. ;-)

    -A.

    --
    What did the walrus say to the penguin? "No soap, radio."
  3. But if they win... by rbgaynor · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...couldn't the lawsuit be considered a circumvention device?

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    "Good things don't end with eum, they end with mania or teria." - H. Simpson