Open Censorware ("filtering") issues page

[Just sent this to the Interesting People list, in response to Libraries, Commercial Censorware & CIPA

From: Seth Finkelstein
Subject: Re: [IP] Libraries, Commercial Censorware & CIPA

Dave, this has come up so frequently in the past few days, that I've started a page of resources/argument/rebuttals about it:

Open Censorware issues
http://sethf.com/anticensorware/legal/open.php

In brief, it's a solved technical problem, for example there's:

SquidGuard
http://www.squidguard.org/ http://www.squidguard.org/blacklist/
GUILT - the GnU Internet Lust Terminator
http://zem.squidly.org/software/guilt.html
Privoxy
http://www.privoxy.org/

So that wheel has already been invented. The issue is more a social and legal issue.

Regarding the issue of the perils of the possibility of open sex site lists, see my rebuttal in testimony during the recent Digital Millennium Copyright Act hearings, where exactly this topic was discussed (search for the discussion of "pornography sites"). It's at
http://sethf.com/anticensorware/hearing_dc.php

In general, commercial censorware companies are not going to open their blacklists, no matter how many times libraries say they should. They sue over this issue, see

http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/cpbfaq.html#whatlawsuit
http://sethf.com/censorware/legal/edelman_n2h2_hearing.php

Seth Finkelstein Consulting Programmer

Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog (Wikipedia, Google, censorware, and an inside view of net-politics) - Syndicate site (subscribe, RSS)