[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re[2]: Free speech debate on MSN Encarta



     
IMO, it's simpler than that:  suppose your favorite rater (SafeForChildren, 
SafeForCongressCritters, SafeFor<our>Church, ...) has a PGP-style key.  If they 
rate a page as OK for their subscribers to read, the rater signs the page with 
it's private key and requests the page owner to include that signature on the 
page.  If you want to limit what you read to what they approve, you read only 
those pages whose signatures can be verified with the trusted rater's public 
key.  BTW, you could put the signature verification into the WEB browser rather 
than the proxy and keep the overhead out in the user's PC.

Would need extensions to HTML standards; e. g. <rated_by xxxyyyzzz = 
0123456789abcdef_hash>.  This would be the hash over the entire page _excluding_
the "rated_by portion(s) so that multiple raters could exist and interoperate.

Martin G. Diehl

Just my own opinion.
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Free speech debate on MSN Encarta
Author:  [email protected] (Joe Block) at Internet-USA
Date:    3/24/96 4:06 PM


At 8:57 PM 3/23/96, Mark M. wrote:
On Sat, 23 Mar 1996, I wrote:
>> However, I don't think it likely that many ISPs will go this route from a 
>> liability point of view - if some parent is paying them to filter out smut, 
>> and little Zippy finds a brand new x-rated site, chances are some irate
     
     [snip]
     
I agree, if you're going to bother with rating pages, digitally signing the 
signature so that terrorist X can't just copy the "Good Clean Fun" rating 
code into his Phosgene formula page is the only rational solution.
     
Gotta love that overhead, though.
     
     
Joseph Block <[email protected]>
     
"We can't be so fixated on our desire
 to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans ..."
 -- Bill Clinton  (USA TODAY, 11 March 1993, page 2A)
PGP 2048bit-Fingerprint: F8 A2 A5 15 56 42 9B 16  3F BD 57 0F 8A ED E3 21
No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.