[Server-devel] Filtering and authentication

[Reuben K. Caron]

Henry,

Thank you for your thoughts and examples. This is exactly why the XS
installer does not contain any content filtering software. It is very
much a cultural and deployment specific issue.

As Anna said, in their case and in the case of every public and many
private K-12 schools in the US they must implement a CIPA compliant
content "filter" in order to continue receiving important
telecommunications (e-rate) funding.

Again thank you for your thoughts and the litmus tests you provide.

Regards,
Reuben


Henry Edward Hardy wrote:
> Dear friends,
>
> I'm a bit disturbed when I hear people using the euphemism "filtering" for
> automated, computerized censorship. I understand there may be legislative or
> political mandates. However, we should never talk about this as though it is
> a good or desirable or acceptable thing.
>
> I realize this may be seen as off topic from the merely technical discussion
> of how to implement computerized censorship, but when we calmly discuss
> technicalities of something which is obviously wrong without questioning it,
> then the discussion needs to be aired.
>
> "Filtering" is what you do to the water in a fish tank. "Censorship" is when
> a state or quasi-state agency proscribes and limits access to certain
> classes of written material.
>
> Here are a few tests we should apply to any such proposed system.
>
> Does it allow access to information about "Romeo and Juliet"? (Underage sex,
> gang-oriented violence, suicide, murder)
>
> Does it allow access to "Huckleberry Finn" (Slavery, frequent use of the
> word "nigger")
>
> Does it allow access to "The Catcher in the Rye" (Use of "fuck", blasphemy,
> drinking, smoking, lying, promiscuity, implied pederasty)
>
> Does it allow access to "Heather has Two Mommies" (Lesbianism)
>
> Does it allow access to "Our Bodies, Ourselves" (Information about human
> health, sex and sexuality)
>
> Does it allow access to "Slaughterhouse-Five" (Genocide, strategic bombing,
> sex)
>
> Does it allow access to "Of Mice and Men" (Retardation, sex, rape, murder)
>
> Does it allow access to "The Handmaid's Tale" (Sexual roles, patriarchy,
> racism, and theocracy)
>
> Does it allow access to "The Kite Runner" (Homosexuality, rape)
>
> Does it allow access to "His Dark Materials" (Anti-state, anti-catholic,
> magic and witchcraft)
>
> Does it allow access to "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (Alchemy, murder,
> debauchery)
>
> Does it allow access to "1984" (Torture, illicit sex, anti-state and
> anti-party politics)
>
> Does it allow access to "Canterbury Tales" (Promiscuity, anti-clericalism)
>
> Does it allow access to  "The Decameron" (Anti-state, anti-Catholic and
> general ribaldry, such as the Third Day, Tenth Story, "How to put the Devil
> in Hell")
>
> And in terms of websites particularly,
>
> RateMyTeachers.com
>
> Peacefire.org
>
> Facebook
>
> Myspace
>
> Orkut
>
> Google
>
> YouTube
>
> Sites which criticize the ruling party or government.
>
> Sites which criticize or parody the predominant religion.
>
> Blogs, in general
>
> And classes of internet services such as
>
> Usenet
>
> FSP
>
> Peer-to-peer file-sharing services such as Bittorrent, EMule, Gnutella
>
> In general, censorship is bad and morally wrong; and automated, computerized
> censorship especially so; and we should never refer to it by a purpose-made
> and innocuous-sounding term like "filtering" or treat it as though it is
> morally or pedagogically acceptable.
>
> IMHO,
>
> Henry
>
> "What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me.
> Now they are content with burning my books."
>
> --Sigmund Freud, 1933
>
> also posted to my blog at http://scanlyze.wordpress.com/
>
> On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 12:47 PM, Anna <aschoolf at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 10:51 AM, Reuben K. Caron <reuben at laptop.org>wrote:
>>     
>>>  A free and simple solution, while not bullet proof (no content filter is
>>> that I am aware), is Open DNS. They are even CIPA compliant in the US:
>>> http://www.opendns.com/solutions/k12/
>>>
>>>       
>> That's what I set up for our pilot school, which was very easy as the XS's
>> DSL connection has a static IP.  OpenDNS provides different filtering
>> options, which you can customize as necessary.  Being in the US, CIPA
>> compliance is absolutely vital to retain certain federal funding, and
>> OpenDNS was the quickest and easiest way to accomplish that.  Dansguardian
>> can be CIPA compliant, but there are other steps involved and I was wary of
>> unintentionally running afoul of the rules.
>> http://dansguardian.org/?page=faq#15  Not to mention Dansguardian consumes
>> server resources.  OpenDNS doesn't use any server resources and you can
>> easily configure the filtering to be CIPA compliant.
>> http://www.opendns.com/solutions/k12/cipa/
>>
>> As far as limiting the internet connection to authorized XOs, that's an
>> issue we're probably going to run into at some point once we broaden the XS
>> deployment.  So far at the pilot school, the staff members connect to the
>> internet with their personal laptops and iPhones, but I haven't really heard
>> any complaints of abuse yet.
>>
>> If your deployment is relatively small, it should be easy enough to add the
>> hardware addresses of the trusted XOs to dhcpd.conf and disallow unknown
>> machines (or play pranks on them as suggested at
>> http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html<http://www.ex-parrot.com/%7Epete/upside-down-ternet.html>
>> ).
>>
>> Anna Schoolfield
>> Birmingham
>>
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>>
>>
>>     
>
>
>   

-- 
Reuben K. Caron
Country Support Engineer
One Laptop per Child
Mobile: +1-617-230-3893
reuben at laptop.org
Deployments Support <http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployments_Support>
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