CIPA done

[Eben Eliason]

On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 4:09 PM, Joshua N Pritikin <jpritikin at pobox.com> wrote:
> [Already sent to Cahalan, forgot to CC devel]
>
>  On Wed, May 07, 2008 at 02:51:27PM -0400, Albert Cahalan wrote:
>  > On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 10:04 AM, Joshua N Pritikin <jpritikin at pobox.com> wrote:
>  > >  That is totally half-assed. As a parent, I would be pissed off when I
>  > >  became aware of the quality of such an OLPC web filtering solution.
>  > >
>  > >  How about if we place a DansGuardian transparent proxy on a public IP
>  > >  address (e.g. proxy.laptop.org). The laptop can use iptables to route
>  > >  everything through the proxy. Then we don't have to waste precious RAM
>  > >  filtering on the laptop.
>  >
>  > Your solution doesn't meet the requirement of the law.
>  > The filtering MUST be on the laptop.
>
>  My filter is an iptable rule to redirect port 80. That's on the laptop.
>  At worst, we can combine your filter and my filter. If the DansGuardian
>  server is down then the kid won't be able to browse the web. That's OK.
>
>  > (but again: this only applies to school-owned laptops)
>  >
>  > Since the filtering MUST be on the laptop, and the laptop
>  > is already suffering performance problems, a half-assed
>  > solution ON THE LAPTOP is sensible. Schools can also
>  > do something sensible with their network connection, but
>  > that doesn't help with compliance.
>  >
>  > BTW, another interesting point is that the law only applies
>  > to images. Kids can read all the filthy stories they want.
>
>  That doesn't mean it's a good idea to allow them to read filthy stories.
>  It's one thing to comply with the law, but we should try to comply with
>  the spirit of the law. I don't want to invite an attack on OLPC by
>  Christian conservatives. OLPC has enough problems already.

My opinion on this matters little as a designer, but my understanding
is that OLPC's policy has been and should continue to be neutral on
this beyond anything required by law.  We don't want to invite attacks
on OLPC by those who think that we're limiting freedom by censorship
either.  Of course, with such freedom comes responsibility, and it
might not be the case that the kids have that level of responsibility
when they first receive their laptops, but leaving that up to the
schools/governments to make policy on seems safer to me.  As soon as
OLPC goes beyond the minimum requirements, you open up the door to
lots of arguments about where to draw the line, and from past
experience that's not an argument that either side can ever win.

- Eben