Re: The Censorware Summit: A Preview, from The Netly News

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

As for Lucky's point #2 -- Yes, I've read drafts of bills that would make
it a Federal crime to misrate. --Declan

On Wed, 16 Jul 1997, Lucky Green wrote:

> At 07:44 AM 7/16/97 -0700, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> >        Stephen Balkam, the head of RSACi, now says he has a solution. He
> >   calls it RSACnews and says that legitimate news sites can use it to
> >   rate just their home pages without having to review each article. Now,
> >   what's a legitimate news site? The Netly News might qualify, but what
> >   about the NAMBLA News Journal? "People who generate firsthand reports
> >   that have been in some ways verified or structured in a way that gives
> >   clear and objective information as possible about events," Balkam
> >   says. "We will be working with the news industry to help us develop a
> >   criteria." (This, presumably, means groups that have signed on as
> >   supporters, including MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, the Well, CNET 
> >   and Ziff-Davis. I'm told that the White House wants to qualify as a 
> >   "news site" -- even though the information there is rarely clear and
> >   certainly not objective.)
> 
> I can't remember how RSACi authenticates the tags. I assume they are either
> signed by a CA or not authenticated.
> 
> 1) If the tags are signed by a CA.
> Who operates the root CA? Who will operate the CA that issues RSACnews
> tags, also knows as Online Publishing Licenses.?
> 
> 2) If the tags are not signed by a CA.
> What is someone to prevent from labeling the NAMBLA monthly site,
> "government authorized news site, suitable for all ages"? Just as the
> various GAK proposals do not make sense unless GAK is mandatory, online
> rating systems do not make sense unless "misslabeling" sites will become a
> felony.
> 
> 
> --Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com>
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> 
>