Re: Protocols at the Point of a Gun

[rkmoore@iol.ie (Richard K. Moore)]

4/11/96, Bill Stewart wrote:
>There are serious technical problems with the suggestion that labelling packets
>as "Adult" or "Child" using IP options and filtering at ISPs for censorship.

        IMHO, the technical problems can somehow be solved, whether we like
it or not, although it will probably be botched intentionally or otherwise.
It's tougher than most protocol upgrades, but easier than was designing
X.400 (just to give some GROSS bounds to the problem).

        My (simplistically presented) suggestion in such a scheme would be
that we don't want a "flag" on packets: we want two "fields":
        - content-classification field in packets:
                _roughly_ analogous to a dewey-decimal number -- says a lot (?)
                about the content, not merely which end of the library it
                goes in

        - user-classification field appended to user-id's:
                a micro-bio of the user -- says something
                about age, languages known, interests


        Before you flame -- I'm not thinking about the potential abuses,
I'm thinking about the useful applications: more useful filtering based on
such fields can be installed as agents on:
        - user machine
        - "dial-in" network node
        - retrieval engines
        - database engines


        "A great project is only a little harder than a good project" - A Kay

Regards,
-rkm
(not on cypherpunks)


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    Posted by Richard K. Moore  -  rkmoore@iol.ie  -  Wexford, Ireland
     Cyberlib:  www | ftp --> ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore/cyberlib
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