The Wheel turns and turns again; this time from the Silver Wheel (Rhod), to the Gold Wheel (Wyn). In this beautiful spring season (my apologies to the Midwest) you would think the world could be as happy as those butterflies out on my tulips. But there are some words of warning that I would like to relate to you from the political realm :
WADL-New England Reg. Dir: Diane DesRochers, BA;MC grotonwitc@aol.com> and,
FIRST AMENDMENT LEGAL DEFENSE FUND:
Citizens Against Censorship; President Art Ketchen
now make formal notice that we have allied with
and place all available resources at the disposal of:
Asherah (Webmistress- The Witches.Com)Phone: (413) 772-2410
E- mail: asherah@thewitches.com Website: http://www.thewitches.com
Texas Pagan Awareness Organization (Webmistress- Lhiannon)
E-mail: Lhiannon@texas.net Website: http://www.tpao.org and,
PEACEFIRE (Webmaster Bennett Haselton)
E-mail: bennett@peacefire.org Website: http://www.peacefire.org
in their ongoing campaign against the clearly illegal , immoral and judgementally prejudicial attacks against the first amendment freedoms guaranteed ALL citizens of these United States.•
From: asherah@thewitches.com
The Burning Times are back. This time in the form of the filtering software Cybersitter, produced by Solid Oak Software Inc. (http://www.solidoak.com ).
Brian Milburn, CEO of Solid Oak Software Inc., has decided to block or censor access to Wiccan/Pagan sites for anyone using his product. This includes numerous public libraries that have this software installed. (EDITOR'S NOTE : Most schools throughout the country already have this software installed. To remove it will become an expensive proposition)
Solid Oak Software Inc. has added the words "witch", "wicca", "wiccan", "pagan" and "witchcraft" along with many other words associated with Paganism to its list of banned words. Along with words associated with other minority religions such as "Jehovah's Witnesses", "Shaman", "Hare Krishna", "Brethren" (which effectively blocks over 90 different Lutheran sites) and many others.
By doing this, many Wiccan/Pagan sites are completely blocked through use of the software. The Pagan Awareness League has been doing it's own extensive testing of the software and has already come up with a list of 104 (ed. note: as of 2/24/98 this number has gone to 176) Wiccan/Pagan sites that are blocked by the software to date. Their results can be found at < HREF="http://members.aol.com/Palweb/cybsit.htm">http://members.aol.com/Palweb/cybsit.htm [NOTE: This site no longer available. 5/14/98 - Ed.] Other pages containing the keywords mentioned are censored by the software beyond readability.
This blocking came about as a result of an e-mail that I had written criticizing Solid Oak Software for blocking The National Organization for Women's website and ALL homosexual related sites including sites focused on gay rights and AIDS awareness. As a result of that letter, I was e-mail bombed by the software company and had my own two domains, www.thepagans.com and www.thewitches.com blocked. The company further made a public statement dismissing my concerns as irrelevant due to the fact that I "run a website promoting Witchcraft and Pagan activities." Two days after blocking my domains, the above Wiccan/Pagan related keywords were added, effectively blocking or censoring ALL Wiccan/Pagan websites on the web from customers using Cybersitter.
Solid Oak Software Inc. does not make public its list of blocked sites or keywords. Therefore, anyone purchasing the product, including public libraries, have no way of knowing what is being filtered. They have recently added a Cult/Occult filter to their software and this is what we, as well as many minority religions, are being classified as. This software also has the capacity to block newsgroups and censor ICQ and e-mail as well.
A complete page with information on this issue is available at http://www.thewitches.com/censor/blocked.htm along with suggestions on what the Wiccan/Pagan community can do to help fight this.
An Explanation on How the Blocking/Censoring Works :
1.) If your domain name contains any of the keywords, i.e. www.witchvox.com (The URL for The Witches Voice) the site will be completely blocked by the software. You will not be able to access the page and will receive an error message... sometimes appearing like this "Unable to open the site http://www.vox.com" . . . In the case of Netscape users, you may get a "DNS not found" message.
2.) If your site contains an overabundant use of the above keywords, your site may either be blocked completely, show up as a blank page or be censored beyond readability.
3.)Using the software, you will not be able to e-mail anyone who's name or domain name contains any of the "taboo" words. . . . This happens if you try to e-mail from that persons website without the e-mail filters turned on. With the e-mail filters turned on, the software blocks ALL incoming and outgoing mail to or from blocked/censored keywords or domains. i.e. if you were to try and e-mail "shaman@yahoo.com" you could not. If your e-mail address is "me@wicca.net" you would not receive mail with your e-mail filters turned on. Nor could anyone using CYBERsitterx e-mail you.
4.) Using the software, you cannot access newsgroups containing the "taboo" keywords, i.e. alt.religion.wicca or texas.religion.pagan nor any other newsgroups containing any of the taboo words interestingly enough including the newsgroup alt.censorship ( Imagine that!!!)
5.) This software also affects ICQ and IRC even without the filters defining those option turned on. ie. if you are using the software and talking to someone via ICQ and they type the sentence." I was in a Wicca chatroom last night. We had an interesting discussion about witchcraft." What you would see on your end would be, "I was in a chatroom last night. We had an interesting discussion about ." (Ed. Note: Druid would have produced the same effect) . . .
6.) This software also affects non-Internet related programs if the software happens to detect any keywords in the programming. (A word of caution to any pagan webcrafter who may decide to test the program, DO NOT attempt to work on your webpage and upload it to the web with the software installed as it will completely screw up your pages by stripping "taboo" words from them before they are uploaded. This may not be visible through your html editor, but the effects are devastating once the page hits the Web.)
7.) Traces of this software remain in your system even after the program has been turned off or removed. i.e. a parent turns on CYBERsitterx while the child surfs, later the adult turns the program off so that he/she can surf the Web, any forbidden page (including wiccan/pagan pages) that the child might have tried to access while using the software, will still be blocked....until the cache is purged. In some cases it requires purging the cache two or three times to be able to access a "taboo" page.
8.) The filter files for this software, when updated, immediately default to the ON position. Unless one physically goes in and turns the specific filter off. Even when the filter file is turned OFF some censoring/blocking may occur.
9.) The software also has the ability to "read between the lines" and invent naughty words that don't even exist on the page. Such as the word "beer" from the sentence " I have been where you are"
From: Lowell McFarland <lowell@nassau.cv.net>
. . . As indicated by other articles, (In the Washington Post) critical of installing censorware filters in public library computers, the issue is not necessarily about protecting children and minors from offensive material, but overt political, moral, religious, etc., control of libraries, librarians and what adult patrons may see or have access to in public libraries.
The issue also may be about filtering companies and their possibly biased secret databases, word lists and macros, within their censorware filtering software, that they are pushing to get installed in public libraries and schools.
Various filtering companies seem to have targeted women's health forums, AIDS information, gays & lesbians, Celtic and Pagan festivals, Paganism, Witches, Atheists, art sites, sites critical of filtering companies, etc., all probably constitutionally protected, while claiming to only aid parents to keep objectionable material from their children.
Additional sources about Internet Library Censorship: http://www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/hmcl.html
http://www.aclu.org/news/n080797a.html http://www.ala.org/alagoal2000/alagoal_home.html
From: Lhiannon Everseeking
I have been doing a cost comparison of CYBERSitter in reference to educational and library pricing, and of the companies that post this information publicly on the Internet, CYBERSitter is about 40$ cheaper than it's closest competition to buy. However, it offers a lease option that is a severe undercutting of every other blocking software out there.
It should also be stated that while most companies price their corporate pricing the same as their educational pricing, CYBERSitter cuts educational and library pricing by half.
BUY
CyberSitter $99.50/10 Seats
NetNannyPro $133.69/10 Seats
SurfWatch $49.95/ 1 Seat
X-Stop $39.95/per 1 up to 25 Seats
NetRated $49.00 per seat
LEASE
$1.35 per seat/min 50
No lease
No lease
No lease
No lease
It's a jungle out there, take care.Anna
Here's a Thought:
After being liberated from a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, Pastor Martin Niemoller wrote: "First, they came for the labor unions but I wasn't a labor unionist, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Communists but I wasn't a communist, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Jews but I wasn't a Jew, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Catholics but I wasn't a Catholic, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak up."
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