Re: blocking software & brock meeks

Vladimir, I agree with you in general, however, Brock and Declan have a point to make too: these companies need to differentiate themselves based on two things: 1. basic philosophy of filtering (why they filter what they filter). 2. diligence in keeping up their databases. Brock & Declan are right to expose the basic filtering philosophies of the different companies, so that those of us who may wish to avail ourselves their services know exactly what we're getting (or rather, not getting). In the end, the market will choose between the simple "no porn" philosophy (for whatever your definition is of that), and the "christian family values approved by the christian coalition" philosophy (with, one hopes, a whole lot of other points on the spectrum in the middle). However, the consumers cannot make this choice absent the information; Brock & Declan have done everyone a service by shining some light on this. What I'm surprised about is that these companies apparently aren't already trumpeting their philosophies of filtering themselves. The principle differentiator for this market is not the software - there really aren't that many ways to filter this stuff, and these companies ought to share their techniques in that area so that they can all be more effective and thus serve their customers better. The real differentiator is what's in their databases, which (one presumes) is driven by each of their philosophies of what is "harmful" to minors. One wonders if these companies might be embarassed to actually take a public position on this burning issue: just exactly what *is* "harmful" to minors? Personally, I fail to see how they can avoid it - it is the essence of their entire business. Erik Fair <fair@apple.com>
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Erik E. Fair