Slashdot Mirror
WebSense Patents Censorware System
Matthew Skala writes "As reported in SiliconValley.internet.com, filtering-software vendor Websense has received US Patent 6,606,659 on a "System and method for controlling access to internet sites". The new features in the patented system seem to revolve around using time limits instead of filtering sites out entirely; offering users a choice of viewing a site and having it logged, or not viewing it; and a scheme for automatically categorizing sites that looks very much like the "Bayesian filters" we've heard so much about in recent weeks. You may be interested in the filtering company's press release about their patent, or my own view."
I helped to sysadmin a Novell Netware installation back when I was at high school in '94.
I seem to remember that they had a time limiting system. Per user, you could set when that user was allowed to log on and access the network.
We used it make sure that users couldn't access the network when they weren't supposed to be able to - so kids didn't share their accounts with others or access the network outside of the allowed times (after hours unsupervised, etc).
I'm not sure how this would relate to the patent (I'm not a patent lawyer), but this was a form of network censorship based on time.
I have experienced first hand internet access policies based on time of the day. When i was working at a CMM Level 5 company, we were not allowed to surf during office hours ( 9 AM to 6 PM ) and the proxy itself was open between 7 AM to 7 PM weekdays.
We do not have a history of profitable operations. Our future SCOsource licensing revenue is uncertain.
My school district uses WebSense to block out 'inappropriate' sites which includes porn, and instructions on making bombs as well as gaming and chat sites. It's pretty damned easy to bypass. Just find the google cache OR if pictures/files are needed find the foriegn version of the site. The de extension seems to be really good for downloads. Another idea would be to setup your own web server which had a form so that you could give it the URL of the site you wanted and it would then dl everything and serve it up under http://yourip/website_ext/
Something like this would require replacing all the hyperlinks but that's not too difficult.
Can anyone tell me if their filters check port 81? 45? etc?
-Tim Louden
For it to be considered prior art, your appliance has to predate January 28, 2000 (date the patent was filed)
Hopefully they price things high so that other people won't use them, an in particular, so that the government won't use them (in libraries, etc).
That's not how it works. The libraries have to install them, or they lose federal funding. Thanks, Sen. McCain.
My misspellings are frequently the same. Microsoft Word seems to reinforce this. It seems to notice words that I misspell often the same way and auto-corrects them after a while. Great for typing, bad for learning better spelling.
Bayesian (copied from above) is one of those words that just gives me fits. I can read it, then be on a blank page 5 minutes later, and not remember, or, if I try, I get something mixed up. For me, if I can't spell the word right immediatly, trying to hard makes things get mixed up.
Of course, on /., so many of us are bad spellers that the community is very forgiving of that particular sin.
Sarcasm and hyperbole are the final refuges for weak minds
Nice try at a "I AM SO SMART!!!1!" comment, but that totally defeats the purpose of su. 'wheel' simply defines who is allowed to su to root, not other users. 'su' by the way stands for "switch user" -- you can su to users other than root, you know. su should be mode 7411, and its program code should be something like:
"If user is in group wheel, then su to root is allowed."
But you already knew that.
AtGuard and Symantec's NIS have been able to firewall outbound web connections to specific hosts based on time of day since 1998.