CDA Court Challenge: Update #6

[rodger@interramp.com (Will Rodger)]

On 4/11/96 Declan McCullagh wrote:

>+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+
>                WHO CARES ABOUT KIDS: WHO ARE THE ADULTS?
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>
>The third way to answer the now-tiresome who-are-the-kiddies question
>is to turn it on its head and ask: "Who are the adults?"
>
>Hardware to answer that question already exists. The March 25 issue of
>Interactive Week reports that Livingston Enterprises, Inc. has
>colluded with Senator Exon's staff to design an "Exon box" -- a router
>that lets ISPs cut off unrated or "indecent" or unrated sites. To get
>around the block, an "adult" enters a secret password that tells the
>router to open a session and let the packets flow.
>
Whoa. Thanks for mentioning my article, Declan, but I think "colluded" is
too strong here - as far as I know, Livingston never contacted Exon, even
though Livingston's ChoiceNet can undoubtedly play into his hands.

>Exon's staff is heralding this as an example of how easy it is to comply
>with the CDA.

Almost - Bruce Taylor is, actually, but he's not part of Exon's satff.


The only problem is that, like many such
>hamfisted censorship "solutions," it sucks, and it ain't going to
>work. One of the original architects of the Internet, David P. Reed,
>wrote:
>
>  I do work to protect my children from inappropriate material, but
>  pressure from Senators to mandate technically flawed solutions, and
>  opportunistic, poorly thought-through technologies from companies
>  like Livingston are not helpful.
>

It should be noted that Livingston is promoting this as a voluntary
solution a la PICS. PICS' own Web pages, after all, suggest software on
routers could do the job as well as client products like NetNanny,
CyberPatrol, etc. There are some distinct advantages to doing it that way,
in fact.

Livingston insists this is an alternative to mandatory censorship, but
they're not being shy about admitting it can be used in other ways, too.
All that said, you cypherpunks can speculate who's up to what in all this.

Will Rodger
Washington Bureau Chief
Interactive Week