Ethics/Censorship

Introduction

Internet Censorship Bill of 1995
Any person or institution who makes offensive material available to minors is liable
This makes alt.sex.*, purity tests, IRC chatting all potentially prosecutable
Censorship measures usually target pornography, political/social/economic opinion, racism, coarse language, anarchist/weapon documents, etc.

Impossible to provide completely effective technical solution
Examples of the two main methods of doing so are:
- SurfWatch: Blocks areas of internet by referencing an index of off-limit URLs (end user implemented)
- ProxyServer: An internet host which blocks access to offensive URLs (ISP implemented)

The internet is international; thus national laws have no bearing outside the borders of one country making law enforcement difficult at best.
In real life, the material being censored is often readily available
The internet provides a forum and (usually) an intelligent debate on the merits of the material whereas this is not found in the real world.
Easy to create encrypted or slightly modified versions of material to avoid detection, prosectution etc.

Censorship will likely only be effective in preventing casual or accidental access to these materials.
Threatens free exchange of information
Not fair to prosecute ISP’s for what they carry; very difficult to conclusively track down source of materials.
History has shown that evils are never destroyed or controlled by hiding them; they must be dealt with openly

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