-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Saturday, May 19 2:48 AM SGT Civil Liberties Groups Oppose 'Stealth' Web Blocking WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 2001 MAY 18 (NB) -- By David McGuire, Newsbytes. A clutch of civil liberties groups on Thursday publicly denounced the practice by some Internet service providers (ISPs) of surreptitiously blocking Internet users from viewing certain Web sites. Led by Peacefire.org - an online group that opposes mandatory Internet filtering - the public interest groups issued a joint statement calling for two large ISPs to end their alleged "stealth" blocking activities. Among the groups that signed the statement were the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "If people want to block themselves voluntarily, that's up to them, but hardly anybody who is downstream from these blocking ISPs realize that's what's going on," Peacefire.org Webmaster Bennett Haselton said today. The joint statement accuses AboveNet and Teleglobe - two large Internet backbone providers - of walling off certain Web sites from their downstream customers. Since the two companies' downstream customers include a slew of smaller ISPs, most of the individual Internet users affected by the so-called stealth blocking tactics are completely unaware that their access is restricted, Haselton said. Haselton said he discovered the activities when he learned that Peacefire.org was one of the sites being blocked by the two companies. To make matters worse, Haselton contends, users who are denied access to sites by the upstream ISPs are misled into believing that the sites in question are having technical difficulties. Haselton said that users of the filtered ISPs would get "site not responding" messages if they attempted to access blocked sites. AboveNet has abandoned most of its blocking activities, but Teleglobe continues to filter out many sites, according to Peacefire.org. Haselton said that most voluntary filtering products block Peacefire.org, because the site allows users to download software designed to disable Internet filters. But Haselton said Teleglobe and AboveNet appear not to have been targeting Peacefire.org directly with their filters. Rather, Haselton said, the ISPs were apparent subscribers to the MAPS (mail abuse prevention system) list of known spammers. Since Peacefire.org's ISP is listed as a provider that hosts spammers, AboveNet and Teleglobe filtered all content hosted on the ISP, Haselton said. Neither AboveNet nor Teleglobe responded to requests for interviews on this story. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
