[11685] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Filtering vs. Censorship
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Craig A Summerhill)
Thu Sep 25 20:13:26 1997
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 1997 14:18:24 -0500
From: Craig A Summerhill <craig@cni.org>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
On Mon, 15 Sep 1997, Joyce Latham <jlatham@interaccess.com> wrote:
>
> There is no difference between filtering and censoring. It is not
> user-driven, it is determined by the developer of the software and the
> person or organization that installs it.
Actually, I feel obliged to challenge you on this. I'm not comfortable
with a blanket statement that filtering = censoring. The situation and
the tools are more complicated than that. Perhaps, if you were to
qualify your statement to say "from the public libraries point of view
and with direct respect to Web browsers on public workstations." Then I
think we could find some ground for agreement.
However, filters can be (and are) applied to a number of other
applications in computing environments. I employ filters on my own
mail, which causes certain types of mail to be pre-sorted and stored in
files other than my main mailbox. [Admittedly, this sometimes has the
side-effect of causing me to reply to a message which is a week or more
old a on discussions list, B^) but it is the only hope of handling the
volume of mail I do in any meaningful way.] This action of filtering
certainly does not infringe on anybody's First Ammendment rights, and I
don't think you can really consider it censoring. Can you? Just
because somebody has a right to say something doesn't mean I have to
listen to it.
Filters are also fairly common at the IP level of the network to prevent
certain types of denial of service attacks.
--
Craig A. Summerhill, Systems Coordinator and Program Officer
Coalition for Networked Information
21 Dupont Circle, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
Internet: craig@cni.org AT&Tnet (202) 296-5098
