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Yemenis Should Be Incensed At Websense
The Internet censoring software maker Websense has a published policy on their website against allowing their software to be used for government-mandated censorship:
Websense does not sell to governments or Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that are engaged in any sort of government-imposed censorship. Any government-mandated censorship projects will not be engaged by Websense. If Websense does win a business and later discovers that the government is requiring all of its national ISPs to engage in censorship of the Web and Web content, we will remove our technology and capabilities from the project.
This supposedly differentiates the company from competitors such as Smartfilter (now owned by McAfee), which according to OpenNet Initiative reports, is used to censor the Internet in several African and Middle Eastern countries including Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Sudan. Websense once enthusiastically competed for the contract to censor Internet access in Saudi Arabia, but has now apparently ceded such markets to Smartfilter.
However, according to the ONI, the two national ISPs in the country of Yemen are using Websense to censor Internet access for all users. The researchers found that some sites are blocked in Yemen that are probably not on Websense's original filtering list, such as the Yemeni Socialist Party, as well as sites that are blocked under standard Websense categories, such as pornography, sex education materials, and "anonymizing and privacy tools" (presumably, proxy sites).
Websense declined to tell me whether they have ever revoked an ISP's license to use Websense after discovering that the ISP was using it in violation of their anti-government-censorship policy. They also declined to say whether they had any ISP customers in Middle Eastern countries, apart from Yemen. (For any Middle Eastern ISP using Websense, there's a high probability that they would be doing it as a result of a government mandated filtering policy, and hence in violation of Websense's stated rules.) But regarding the use of Websense in Yemen, Websense did reply to say simply, "We will look into the matter. If our software is being used in violation of our policy, we will take appropriate action." I think that if they were serious about preventing their software from being used for government censorship, they should have red-flagged any purchase from a national ISP in a country with one of the worst press-freedom ratings in the world, but better late than never.
There are only about 200,000 Internet users in Yemen, compared to over six million in Saudi Arabia, millions more in other censored Middle Eastern countries, and 300 million in Internet-censored China. (And even the Yemenis' Internet access is not filtered all the time, since the ONI report says that the number of concurrent licenses for Websense purchased by the Yemeni ISPs is less than the number of Yemeni Internet users, and when the number of concurrent users exceeds the number of licenses, all requests go through unfiltered!) So it would be a small step towards global liberation of the Internet, but still equivalent to de-censoring Internet access for every resident of Boise if the city had 100% broadband penetration, which is enough to justify putting the squeeze on Websense.
What exactly would happen if Websense did revoke their license for the Yemeni ISPs? They couldn't force the ISPs to uninstall the software, but they could stop allowing them to download further updates to the Websense blocked-site list. Most installations of Websense are configured to download updates to the list every day, to block the latest adult websites as well as to try and stay ahead of newly released proxy sites. Once the list updates stopped, all existing blocked websites would remain blocked, but newly created adult sites and proxy sites would be accessible, and the filtering would gradually become less and less effective. So it would be a concrete victory for Yemeni Internet users, and not just a symbolic gesture.
How would we know if Websense went through with it, anyway, if they refuse to confirm or deny that they have revoked the licenses for Yemen? The ONI declined to tell me how exactly they determined that Yemeni ISPs were using Websense. (Not that I mind; they could have obtained this information with the help of people whose jobs and freedom would be at stake if they were found out, in which case ONI would not be able to share their confidential sources.) Presumably the ONI could repeat their research in the future to determine if Websense were still being used. However, even if they can see that Websense software is still being used to censor the Internet, it may not be easy to tell whether the Yemeni ISPs are still downloading updates to the blocked-site list. My suggestion: Create a new proxy site and don't publicize it anywhere, but report it to Websense for blocking. Test a few days later to verify that it's blocked by Websense, but not by Smartfilter or other popular blocking programs. Then see if it's blocked in Yemen as well. If not, then hopefully that means that Websense cut them off.
And then what? Maybe the Yemeni ISPs will just continue using Websense with a frozen copy of the blocked site list, reasoning that most of the well-known adult sites that users are going to try to visit, are probably already on that list. Maybe they'll set up a shell company in another country, posing as an ISP requesting a legitimate copy of Websense, and buy a new list subscription that way. But it will still be worth it to press Websense into revoking their license, even if it only breaks Internet censorship in Yemen for a few months or a year. At that point, perhaps they'll just take their business to Smartfilter like almost every other Middle Eastern country that censors the Internet.
After all, we shouldn't pick on Websense too much, when Smartfilter is censoring national Internet access for about 100 times that many users in total. If Websense says they don't provide software to government censors, then we should hold them to that. But the real scandal isn't that American censorware companies provide filters to censoring governments while claiming not to, it's that American companies are doing it at all.
They won't see this.
Please, when did a corporation last value principles over profits?
Anonymouse Cynical Coward
Well, if you are willing to do anything for money, as people in some cultures are, then it is only matter of time. I am sure Yemen will be able to develop the skill in maybe 10 years. Why shouldnt we profit on the way?
So are the ISPs blocking because they have their own cultural objection to the content, or is the government requesting it? It says national ISP, so the question is how much oversight the government has, and if there are alternative ISPs.
More information, please.
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
<Flamebait>I know that nobody reads the stories, but...Would it be too much to ask for a single link that leads to the story in the portion that shows on the front page? The brief blurb has no link, but the full story has so many (and mainly pointless) links that it's impossible to find it. Unless there isn't a story and this is just random blathering.</Flamebait>
Oh yeah. Websense is an American company. Damn evil Americans!
Oh, wait - it's 1/3 of the way down the voluminous post. Which has (un)surprisingly little content.
From TFA (after I found it)
Is it possible they simply bought the Blue Coat appliances which came prepackaged with the software?
Oh, and editors, ffs, EDIT!
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
When I first read the summary, I was thinking, what does the Office of Naval Intelligence have to do with this?
My office uses Websense. As annoying as it is, all you have to do to get around it is set a proxy in your web browser. In this case, the proxy just needs to be located outside of Yemen.
Having operated under a rather oppressive form of websense at college for years, I have very little love for the company. But this still seems like a case of over-extending the blame. Sure, they are probably more evil than they want to pretend, but at least they bother pretending; which is more than I can say for some.
I think I'll reserve judgment until more facts are out, especially Websense's next step. If they actually do uphold their anti-censorship statement, then props to them; they'll be the least annoying filtering software in the market, which is not saying a whole lot.
DISCLAIMER: I am very rarely serious. If the above comment seems asinine makes no sense, it is most likely a bad joke.
I modded you down because you are a spammer. Never ever visit the web sites of spammers for any reason. Ever. Even if the offer is legit the marketing is not. Best way to make sure you know Slashdot is not your personal fucking billboard is to make sure that you never get a positive reaction from posting your SHITTY SPAM on here. You're welcome. Now go back to Usenet where you belong. See how polluted that is, how every 4 of 5 messages is some goddamned spammer trying to advertise some shit? That's what I don't want Slashdot to become. You just took a baby step towards making it become that way. Negative reaction requested - negative reaction received.
They are surely a corporation of principles. Yemen was just... filtering to... protect their children. Please, won't somebody please think of the children!?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
In US, ISPs may not be the ones filtering Internet content, but filtered it is - by lawsuits, employers who fire for facebook pages, and vigilantes jumping at any lapse of political correctness. I am sure the parties involved this the content is as offending as Yemenes consider porn.
"What exactly would happen if Websense did revoke their license for the Yemeni ISPs?"
Free, unfiltered, unfettered access to the rest of the world? Freedom for people to determine their own paths?
Why on earth would the Yemen(ese?) government want that for its citizens?
Control=power.
Sent from your iPad.
Considering that Yemeni's live on an average of $1.25 a day, most of them don't even have access to the Internet. And since it's a vary traditional Muslim country, many would applaud filtering out "harmful foreign content". The author is applying his own feelings and standards to a very different people and culture.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
when the number of concurrent users exceeds the number of licenses, all requests go through unfiltered
I think this is configurable. When all the Websense licences are in use at my office, all requests get blocked.
tl;dr
Websense, a U.S.-based Internet censoring software maker
Websense, a U.S. based Internet filtering software maker
There. Fixed that for you. Websense doesn't *censor*, that is left up to the individual admins who purchase the product. They take great pains to make sure that the software doesn't censor by using actual real human beings to categorize their list of websites and peer review to make sure that they agree on the categories assigned. THAT IS ALL THEY DO. The purchasers decide what categories they want to turn off or on. And as the product is OEM in a number of appliances, it is quite possible they are not aware of it's use in Yemen.
Disclaimer: I appeared in a promo video for Websense when they first started out; I was a big fan of the product for use in a private school setting precisely because it *wasn't* like all the other filtering software out there and censorship was a major issue with the students there.
filtering of the intertubes is done globally to silence anyone that goes against the status quo or against any government dissent, oh well so much for that free speech thing in the bill of rights
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Instead of just blocking the Yemeni ISPs from the update server completely, they could redirect them to an update that removes everything from the current block list. That'd make the filter useless instantly unless the ISPs maintain backup copies of the downloaded filter list. Given that there's speculation that the filters in question are dedicated appliances, there's a good chance that the ISPs wouldn't have such backups.
Just a quick note on the way the WS install would handle the database download failures. There is a possibility that the downloads would stop. Short of a manual download and implementation, this could prove effective in disabling the filtering in a matter of weeks. Websense filtering stops to function as designed when the database becomes 'stale', or is older than 2 weeks. At that point, the logs continue to function, as they would normally, but the filtering halts. If Websense does indeed revoke the license making the downloads not work, then there is a strong possibility that the filtering will altogether stop functioning in a matter of days allowing all access.
There content filtering sucks like a fucking HOOVER!!
"My immediate reaction is "WTF? What kind of moron doesn't make things 64-bit safe to begin with?" Linus
In Soviet Russia, Websense fil....
Umm wait, darn it, lemme figure this out. Carry on.
Proof in moderation.
"Yemenis Should Be Incested At Websense"
and I was all wtf??? But still, the choice of wording in the headline is AWESOME ;)
They should send 1 final update, removing all existing filters and replacing them by a filter that blocks the whole Yemen tld.
And if possible replace some of the "blocked" screens with goatse.
I guess they've terminated of the contracts with Australian ISPs then, right?
Will the Yemeni ISP get a refund on their subscription now that Websense has blocked access to updates?
After failing to download a database update for two weeks, the software will cease to function. Now that the subscription has been pulled, Yemen ISPs will have two weeks to find a different "solution" to their problem.
...websense should perform a show of support for free speech and give Yemeni ISPs access to a database that has nothing in it. Assuming the auto-update just replaces the database and it's entirety and it's nothing like a diff or an incremental backup.