Re: Censorware Summit Take II, from The Netly News

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

Read the complete text of my article. The RSACnews system would include
just that: a system that allows a board of media conglomerates to decide
what's a "news site" or not. 

In other words, what's "credible."

-Declan


On Wed, 16 Jul 1997 geeman@best.com wrote:

> I can't wait until the tags include information on *political* content, or
> *credibility factor* (i.e. sanctioned by medai conglomerate or not) etc...
> 
> At 02:06 PM 7/16/97 -0700, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> >
> >***********
> >
> >http://pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1173,00.html
> >
> >The Netly News (http://netlynews.com)
> >July 16, 1997
> >
> >At The Censorware Summit
> >by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
> >
> >     If you host a web page or publish online, be
> >warned: soon your site might become invisible. Search
> >engines won't index it and web browsers won't show it.
> >Unless, that is, you agree to attach special labels to
> >your web pages identifying how violent, sexually
> >explicit, or inappropriate for kids your site is.
> >
> >     This was the thrust of today's White House
> >censorware summit, where President Clinton sat down
> >with high tech firms and non-profit groups in a
> >private meeting to talk about pressuring the Net
> >community to make cyberspace childsafe through labels.
> >"We need to encourage every Internet site, whether or
> >not it has material harmful to minors, to rate its
> >contents," Clinton said after the meeting. Vice
> >President Gore was there, too, giving a quick
> >demonstration of how labeling works.
> >
> >     Spooked by the threat of a revised Communications
> >Decency Act, high tech firms are seriously backing
> >labels for the first time. Joining Clinton in coercing
> >Internet users and businesses to label all their web
> >pages were Yahoo, Excite, and Lycos. "I threw a
> >gauntlet to other search engines in today's meeting
> >saying that collectively we should require a rating
> >before we index pages," Robert Davis, the president of
> >Lycos, told me. Translation: if you don't play ball,
> >and label your site, search engines will ignore you.
> >
> >     As will future users of Microsoft's Internet
> >Explorer browser. The next version of IE will default
> >to displaying only properly labeled web pages,
> >according to Ken Wasch, the president of the Software
> >Publishers Association. Since many users won't turn
> >off that feature to reach unrated sites, many large
> >web sites now are facing hefty pressure to self-label.
> >
> >     Other high tech firms rushed to join the
> >presidential limelight. Netscape promised to join
> >Microsoft and include label-reading software in the
> >next version of its browser. America Online's Steve
> >Case thanked Clinton for "backing industry's efforts
> >to make cyberspace a safer place." IBM announced a
> >$100,000 grant to RSACi, a PICS-based rating standard
> >originally designed for video games but adapted for
> >the Web. The industry giant also pledges to
> >incorporate RSACi into future products.
> >
> >[...]
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
>