Symantec has been doing this for over a year. See, http://guncite.com/gun_control_i-gear.html
>From the above link, Symantec's response to my initial inquiry was: "Sorry for the late reply - I was out sick all of last week. "I spoke with the I-Gear product manager about 2 days after we initially spoke. He said he would follow up with you via email - he is very busy so it may take a while (I'll check with him the next time we speak). "Basically the logic behind gun filtering lists came about after the Columbine school shootings. It was decided that I-Gear would start filtering gun sites that promote gun use so schools can monitor their students in hopes of preventing future school shootings. This is the reasoning behind filtering sites that promote gun "use" vs. guns in general. "I hope this explanation helps." --- Tim Lambert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You will have to go to my blog at: > http://timlambert.org/2003/07#0726 > if you want to see or follow any of the links in my > post below: > > Vladimir Kushnir describes how Symantec's censorware > blocks access to > many pro-gun websites such as nra.org, under the > category 'Weapons'. I > checked, and he has accurately described which sites > are > blocked. (Though the Lott site that is blocked is > actually a > collection of Lott's articles--Lott's own site is > not blocked.) I > agree with Kushnir that most people would not expect > 'Weapons' > (blocked by default) would block access to sites > like gunscholar.com. > > Kushnir also found that many more pro-gun sites were > blocked than > pro-control sites. I found that 13 of Google > Directory's 48 Pro-Gun > Rights sites were blocked by the 'Weapons' category, > while only 5 of > the 78 sites in Google's so called Anti-Gun Rights > sites were > blocked. There certainly seems to be some bias > against pro-gun sites > here. Kushnir believes that this > > could only be achieved as a result of a > conscious effort to block > conservative websites, dedicated to the > protection of the > Constitution, while not blocking the liberal > ones. > > I don't think this is correct. They do block some > pro-control sites > and the pattern observed could be the result of > unconscious bias on > the part of the employees selecting sites, or that > pro-gun sites are > more likely to be submitted for blocking. > > In any event, I don't think any of the sites should > be blocked (and > perhaps the NRA and VPC can agree on something > here--they are both > blocked). But then, I think the whole idea of > censorware is a bad > idea. > > -- > Tim __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). http://calendar.yahoo.com
