Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America

[Jacob Appelbaum <jacob () appelbaum net>]

John C. A. Bambenek, GCIH, CISSP wrote:
> I'm not saying the implementation was intelligent, I am saying it's not
> censorship and quit your whining.  It's not the taxpayers job to facilitate
> people's pervsities... pay for your own porn.  Don't like it, by all means,
> hook up your smart phone and get online that way.  Or better yet, go
> f****ing masturbate at home.


Hi,

First of all: It's a form of censorship.

I'm a regular contributer to Boing Boing (though obviously not an
author, just a pal - so to speak) and I take issue with what you're
saying. BB isn't porn.

You are blocked in the same way, in fact with the same software as users
in Syria. They look for certain offensive material and the filter may
even alert the authorities.

Someone other than the user of the network made the choice to block
content. If you argue that it's not the taxpayers job to facilitate
peoples' perversions, I'd agree. Stop spending tax payers dollars on
this censorship fetish.

We have laws and make a crime of showing porn to children. If it
happens, arrest the suspect and try them. Stop making new rules that
take petty bureaucrats to the level of censor.

No one is asking to masturbate - people are saying that it's blocking
legitimate uses of the network. Yes, it may include your definition of
pornography but your web pages may be my definition of hate speech.

Where does this stop? It won't. Smart filter makes a business out of
censoring information - all kinds of information.

I notice you're a CISSP - how would you like it if all of the CISSP
learning material was censored under the category of "hacking tools?"
Does that make sense? I don't think so.

This kind of filtering is pervasive and a problem. But not because I'm
looking for porn but because it's imperfect at the very core of its idea!

(This of course says nothing of the fact that you can easily get around
any of this bullshit filtering: http://www.boingboing.net/censorroute.html )

Regards,
Jacob Appelbaum
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