[ Verified - blacklisted as "Sex" ]
[Summary - SmartFilter blacklisted a web digital library devoted to "NIPS", that is, "Neural Information Processing Systems", as 'Sex'. The reason should be obvious, but if not, take a look at the (surprisingly, unblacklisted) site http://www.bcpl.net/~lpettijo/2cndpage.html
Of course, after this is publicized, SmartFilter'll eventually change it, and the censorware blacklist will be assumed perfect once again ...
My previous reports on SmartFilter:
SmartFilter's Greatest Evils
SmartFilter - I've Got A Little List
]
From: Yann LeCun
To: Seth Finkelstein
Subject: SmartFilter blocks computer science library
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 13:42:12 -0500
Seth,
I thought you might be amused to know that the NIPS Online web site ( http://nips.djvuzone.org ) is currently being blocked by SmartFilter. This may be a good example of the "collateral damage" caused by censorware. NIPS Online is a free digital library that provides access to the proceedings of a yearly computer science conference called Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS).
I am the creator and maintainer of NIPS Online, and I am not sure why my site is being blocked (the content is as innocuous as can be), though I suspect the acronym NIPS may have something to do with it.
What I know is that prominent scientists at some industry research labs are being denied access to important scientific publications because their employer uses bad censorware (not that there is such a thing as good censorware).
Regards,
-- Yann LeCun
____________________________________________________________________
Yann LeCun Fellow, Computer Science Division
NEC Research Institute tel:+1(609)951-2614 fax:(609)951-2482
4 Independence Way yann[at]research[dot]nj[dot]nec[dot]com
Princeton, NJ 08540-6634, USA.
http://yann.lecun.com
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