The structure is really
good, and the lively debate on this thread indicates that the work here
is on the right path.
Thanks for your feedback Meredith, greatly appreciated. My hope is that,
thanks to our work, RIPE can soon have its own document to support
governments in outlining pros and cons of various content filtering
methods and, above all, to help them in understanding limits [1] and
collateral damage that most of the currently deployed measures have.
With that, I have one high-level, two-paragraph comment that I hope adds
to the discussion.
I would suggest removing the target audience --
That's right, also the title ("An analysis on web filtering methods for
law enforcement purposes") should be changed ;-)
Page 8 and
9 suggest means of using these techniques for "preventing access to
illicit content." I would suggest removing this section
[...]
Insofar as this
is a document focused on the means, not the ends, speculating on
"good" vs. "bad" modes of filtering/blocking, even implicitly, leads
quickly to our having to justify one or another ethical viewpoints
Perhaps changing it rather than removing it may have the same effect.
"Illicit content" could be changed in "unwanted"/"undesired" and
something like the introduction of [2] may be used to depict the scope
of application.
Since I wrote the whole text considering only the law enforcement
perspective, as soon as I can I will review the whole document to have a
more clear idea of changes to bring in in order to make it detached from
any ethical viewpoint.
At this stage, I would suggest thinking of others we might want to bring
into the discussion.
It may be useful to bring in both technical and non-technical people.
Innocenzo Genna [3] might get involved in: I don't know him well, I just
follow his blog [4], but, as far as I can see, he recently participated
in the November coop-wg meeting with EU Parliament and he's active in
the tlc and internet regulation & policies areas. He might offer a non
stricly technical point of view about our work. Do you think he could be
of help for the cause?
[1] It looks like someone is already realizing them -
https://publicaffairs.linx.net/news/?p=10264&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dutch-appeal-court-removes-pirate-bay-block
[2] "Technical Considerations for Internet Service Blocking and
Filtering" -
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-iab-filtering-considerations-05
[3] "Innocenzo is an expert of European regulation and policy in the
areas of Internet and telecommunications" -
http://www.innocenzogenna.com/en/bio.php
[4] http://radiobruxelleslibera.wordpress.com/
--
Pier Carlo Chiodi
http://pierky.com/aboutme
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of any
organization, entity or committee to which I may hold a position.
