WebSense Patents Censorware System

Posted by timothy on Tuesday September 9, 2003 @11:00AM from the ones-and-zeros dept.

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."

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Re:Yipee by Realistic_Dragon · 2003-09-09 11:05 · Score: 0, Offtopic

My local library blocks out anything to do with pregnancy (like the council run pregnancy advice service), anything with chat in the domain name (like the casual chat web forum) but doesn't block goatse.cx. Go figure.

That'll teach me not to RTFA. It seems that this filter would actually improve this situation and make it slightly more sane - assuming that it was set up correctly.

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