Defamation of Character

[Jamie McKenzie <mckenzie@FROMNOWON.ORG>]

Dear Colleagues . . .

Last week I became aware that articles on my Web site were being blocked by
an Internet filtering software company named SurfWatch.  www.surfwatch.com

A technology director e-mailed me complaining that she could not get to an
article I had written about adult learning.
http://www.fno.org/eschool/adult.html

When you visit http://www.surfwatch.com and test that address, it says that
it is blocked for "sexually explicit material" yet the article contains
none.

Is this approach to blocking content arbitrary, capricious and
irresponsible?  It evidently relies upon clues like the file name
"adult.html" to filter pages without actually examining their content.  If
they were simply blocking the site, it would be one kind of damage, but
they go a step further by labeling the content erroneously as "sexually
explicit."  This is defamation of character and false.

I went to their Web site on April 23 and filled out a form to have them
reconsider the label.  No response and no change as of today.

What we have here is an industry which sometimes uses crude measures to
deliver "information security" and applies a standard that a page or a site
is "guilty until proven innocent."

It is quite possible that hundreds of people in any given week are
erroneously told that I am providing "sexually explicit" material on my Web
site.  As a speaker, this kind of electronic smear campaign could be quite
damaging.

I would ask members of LM_NET to send me e-mail if they have been blocked
from the From Now On Web site by any filtering program.  I am seriously
thinking about taking legal action to stop this kind of irresponsible site
filtering, and your messages could provide critically important evidence.

Many thanks,
Jamie

Jamie McKenzie
Editor - "From Now On - The Educational Technology Journal"

mckenzie@fromnowon.org            http://fno.org

500 Fifteenth Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
Voice (360) 647-8759  Fax (360) 738-9083
"The question is the answer."  "Hits are not Truth."

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