
Both the American Civil Liberties Union and The American Library Association filed suit 3-20-2001 in Federal court to stop the Children's Internet Protection Act (CHIPA). This is the act that forces libraries and schools to use filtering software (censorware). You can read both complaints here: ACLU http://www.aclu.org/court/multnomah.pdf ALA http://www.ala.org/cipa/cipacomplaint.pdf Filtering software has been pushed as the solution to stopping children from viewing inappropriate materials, like pornography, on the Internet. However, the software has numerous flaws, the most basic being that it doesn't stop all of the pornography. More ominously, and more of a threat to our long term liberty is the fact that the software in many cases "blacklists" political and other material incorrectly. Seth Finkelstein, who just won the Electronic Freedom Foundation's Pioneer Award, details a few gun related sites that are blacklisted. If a school or library had the SmartFilter program installed, students would be blocked from viewing those sites. As a point of information- http://www.ayoob.com which is listed as "extreme" is the site run by the noted Police firearm's Instructor Massad Ayoob. The site is His Lethal Force Institute, which trains qualified citizens and police in armed self defense techniques. The other sites, are listed under the category of criminal skills. http://www.springfield-armory.com is the site for Springfield Armory an American producer of fine firearms. My recommendation is that everyone enter their favorite site's url at: http://www.securecomputing.com/cgi-bin/filter_whereV3.cgi and see if their site or company is blocked. Then I'd take whatever action, including the courts to have the incorrect designation removed. Regards, Matthew Gaylor- [Please post this to other RKBA forums and elsewhere if relevant.]