JD Lasica on labels/censorware as threat to Net, in Salon

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

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Subject: censorship story on salon
   Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 09:49:17 -0700
   From: Joseph Lasica <jlasica@microsoft.com>
     To: "'declan@well.com'" <declan@well.com>

Declan,

Hey, thought you'd be interested in the lead story today in Salon, the
one on the Ratings police.

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[I've attached the first part of the story below. Visit the web site for
the complete article; it's well worth a read. --Declan]

http://www.salonmagazine.com/july97/21st/ratings970731.html

RATINGS TODAY, CENSORSHIP TOMORROW

The Net industry is rushing to embrace ratings systems
for the Web. The technology will help parents keep
their kids away from porn. It can also help anyone
censor anything.

BY JOSEPH D. LASICA

A few years from now, when we look back at what
crippled the Internet as a global forum for the free
exchange of information, at least we'll know it was
done with the best of intentions.

Who, after all, could oppose Internet ratings if they
create a "family-friendly" online world?

And so, to make the Net safer for kids and to avert
government regulation, the Internet brain trust has
banded together to push rating, filtering and labeling
technology -- a private-sector techno-fix to cleaning
up the Net. President Clinton has signed on and has
used his bully pulpit to jawbone companies that were
wavering on the issue. And the news media have covered
the president's initiative with the gusto of a pep
rally.

With all this firepower behind them, ratings are
coming to a Web site near you -- in fact, to all Web
sites, if proponents have their way. And a panoply of
would-be censors -- from foreign despots to home-grown
zealots and pandering politicians -- couldn't be
happier.

"What's happening now is a move toward the privatizing
of censorship," says David Sobel, legal counsel for
the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).
"It's likely to destroy the Internet as it's existed
up till now."

There are a great many ironies here, but the greatest
irony is that the censorship will be self-imposed --
we're doing it for the sake of family, parents,
children. In truth, Internet ratings are being driven
by the changing business interests of the major
players involved.

In the last go-around over muzzling the Internet, Net
users, the computer industry, the media and civil
liberties groups all united against the government's
Communications Decency Act -- which the Supreme Court
buried last month. This time around, the lineup is a
lot more lopsided.

On one side: the U.S. government, the high-tech
industry, most major media outlets and a vocal cast of
parents' organizations, child-safety advocates and
anti-obscenity groups.

On the other: the American Civil Liberties Union,
EPIC, the American Library Association, a smattering
of university scholars and that guy over there waving
the "No ratings" sign.

Why have the software companies and Internet firms
gone over to the other side? Certainly, they're
spooked by the specter of Congress passing a "son of
CDA" bill. But it goes beyond that.

Internet ratings dovetail nicely with big business's
desire to make the Internet safe for God, apple pie
and commercialism. The "dark side" of the Net --
hackers, foreigners, political extremists, geeks,
"phreaks," porn purveyors, hate groups, people who
SHOUT IN ALL CAPS AND USE EXCLAMATION MARKS!!! -- will
largely be banished to an unrated no-man's land where
browsers and search engines fear to tread.

So it was no surprise that the invitation list to the
Internet summit at the White House on July 16 bore
names like Netscape, America Online and IBM rather
than names like geekboy or cybergrrrl. At the meeting,
President Clinton announced a "parental empowerment"
initiative that would give parents the tools to shield
children from obscenity, violence and antisocial
messages on the Net. Although every idea on the table
is software-based, the administration couldn't resist
dubbing the plan the "E-chip," a cousin of
television's V-chip, which will block unsuitable
programming.

[...]


-------------------------
Declan McCullagh
Time Inc.
The Netly News Network
Washington Correspondent
http://netlynews.com/