funsec mailing list archives
Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America
From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org>
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:16:35 -0400
On Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 01:58:28PM -0600, 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.
Actually, yes, it absolutely IS censorship: this action was taken by a government entity -- and in a public space. It's also content-directed, as opposed to content-neutral (like "block all email" or "block all images from all web sites"). Content-neutral actions often pass Constitutional scrutiny, but those directed at particular content often don't. IANAL, but it seems to me there are substantial grounds to challenge this action on First Amendment grounds, and I certainly hope someone with appropriate standing does.
It's not the taxpayers job to facilitate people's pervsities...
You're completely missing my point. First, it's utterly ludicrous to suggest that this is a serious problem. It's not. An actual serious problem related to airports is one being discussed in a related thread on this list: crimes by DHS personnel, including theft of baggage contents by TSA agents. Second, if we are willing to make an enormous leap of imagination and pretend for moment that this really *is* a problem worthy of someone's effort for more than a cheap joke, then one of the first things we should realize is that it's not a technical problem, therefore it's probably not susceptible to a technical solution. Third, shortly following that, we should realize that the non-technical problem here is not that people are surfing certain web sites while at the aiport. The problem is that parents are failing to control their children and/or to instruct them in basic manners, including "it is impolite to try to look at other peoples' computer screens without their permission". It is not my job or your job or any random airport visitor's job to parent anyone else's children. If those children are rude enough to try to shoulder-surf: too bad. If in doing so they catch a glimpse of Boing Boing (which I contribute to occasionally, by the way, and strongly recommend as one of the most literate and fascinating sites): too bad. Or if they wind up staring at porn, or politics, or postfix, or even cute lil' bunnies: too bad. This Is Not My Problem. Of course said parents have no doubt complained to the airport authorities: that's easy. Parenting is hard. But as we've seen in other contexts, many in positions of authority unfortunately lack the intelligence necessary to recognize this and the spine necessary to resist being bullied into taking foolish actions. It's thus unsurprising to see the usual result: an inappropriate solution to a non-problem has been poorly deployed and will in the end have absolutely no effect -- since anyone of even modest ability will bypass the crap censorware (ah, but I repeat myself) at their convenience. Well, actually, there is one effect: the censorware company made a buck or two by once again exploiting the failure of yet another idiotic public official to realize what country they live in and work for. One can only hope that if there IS an afterlife that Thomas Paine will be waiting for this bonehead in order to slap him silly the moment he arrives. ---Rsk _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America, (continued)
- Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America Drsolly (Mar 14)
- Israel... Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America Gadi Evron (Mar 14)
- Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America Rich Kulawiec (Mar 14)
- Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America John C. A. Bambenek, GCIH, CISSP (Mar 15)
- Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America Jacob Appelbaum (Mar 15)
- Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America Blanchard_Michael (Mar 17)
- Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America der Mouse (Mar 17)
- Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America Rich Kulawiec (Mar 17)
- Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America Jacob Appelbaum (Mar 17)
- Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America Andy Sutton (Mar 17)
- Re: Say it ain't so: Censorship in America Rich Kulawiec (Mar 15)