* Solid Oak Software's extremist, fascist behavior
Solid Oak Software's extremist, fascist behavior
Right-wing extremist groups operating in the United States have been using
the rhetoric of "Save the children!" to advance their occult
agendas for decades. Now, with the help of technology, a new fascist
business called "Solid Oak Software" has managed to rise above
all the rest and get noticed.
As described below, their Internet-access software limits the information
that the company's leader -- Brian Milburn -- wants his customers to access.
Even though customers are told it "saves the children!" the
company doesn't advertise [1] the fact that the parents who purchas the
software have no say-so in what it will allow access to and what it will
not; the buyer unthinkingly purchases the extremist bias of the company's
leader.
Indeed, it gets worse: Mr. Milburn refuses to divulge the sites that the
software won't access and has implimented very weak encryption to make sure
that parents never learn about his extremist bias. He gets upset when
people publically report on some of the sites that he doesn't want anyone
to access. (If he's embarrassed by his prejudices, he shouldn't expose
them, I opine.)
Buyer beware.
As for myself, I've asked to have my web pages included in the list of
banned sites. The cult _does_ provide a highly valuable service to
educational organizations like mine by limiting the access to their web
pages to educated, intelligent people. As more and more people become
aware of what the software does, only people who share the company leader's
bizarre bias will use it -- and I don't want those types of people
accessing my materials any way. Do you?
[1] This may change. The company may have to start publically admitting
that customers can't select what they can or can not access (perhaps the
company has already started.) People who purchas Internet-censoring
software have the right to at least know that in addition to limiting the
access to pornography, the software also limits access to educational
systems and charity organizations.
-=-
CyberWire Dispatch // Copyright (c) 1996 // December 20
Washington -- It's a long held maxim that technology is "agenda
neutral." Until now.
As an earlier Dispatch investigation proved, the so-called "blocking
software" industry, praised for enabling parents, teachers and
corporations to block porn from being sucked into the computers of those
trolling the Web, often comes with a shrink-wrapped, encrypted agenda in
the form of the database of web sites and newsgroups these programs actually
block.
Porn sites aren't the only ones blocked. Sites with decided political or
activist agendas, such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) or
animal rights groups, also are blocked. Trouble is, these blocking software
programs don't make this known to the user. For some companies, shedding a
spotlight on their underlying agenda, makes them sweat bullets or foam at
the ascii mouth. Such is the case with Brian Milburn, president of Solid
Oak Software, developer of an insipidly named blocking program called
"Cybersitter."
When confronted with his agenda ridden software, Milburn isn't shy about
it, indeed, he was outright indignant when he originally told Dispatch:
"If NOW doesn't like it, tough... We have not and will not bow to
any pressure from any organization that disagrees with [our]
philosophy."
So when Bennett Haselton decided to put a sharp edge on this subject by
focusing on Cybersitter with laser like precision, Milburn went off the
charts.
Milburn wrote to Media3, the ISP that houses Haselton's website
Milburn ranted to Media3 that Haselton had made it "his mission in
life to defame our product" exhibiting "extreme immaturity,"
by "routinely" publishing names of sites blocked by Cybersitter.
Milburn claimed that Haselton may have "illegally reversed
engineered" the Cybersitter database. Milburn has threatened legal
action. Haselton, however, found a white knight.
After hearing about Milburn's actions, Mike Godwin, legal counsel for the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, decided to represent him.
In an Email to Wired News correspondent Rebecca Vesely, who wrote about
Milburn's beef with Haselton, Milburn said he was swamped with
"geek-mail" from Wired News' "loyal following of pinhead
idiots."
Milburn characterized Haselton, "an aspiring felon" and said that
he had confirmation that Haselton was the "ghost writer" for the
original Dispatch article that broke the story of the hidden agendas in
blocking software.
All this bluster over Haselton, an 18-year-old with too much time on his
hands. If right about now you're thinking that Milburn should pick on
someone his own size, well, he's already "been there, done that"
and got his ass kicked in the process.
You see, after the first Dispatch article, Milburn sent us a saber-rattling
Email. His Aug. 15th Email claimed that "your willful reverse
engineering and subsequent publishing of software code is a clear
violation" of copyright law. And although he claimed he was sure he
could win a case in civil court, he was instead seeking "felony
criminal prosecution" by going to the FBI with his beef.
I referred Milburn to my lawyers at Baker & Hostetler, who promptly pointed
out that Dispatch hadn't been the one to hack the cybersitter database.
Further, our article was "protected by the full force of the First
Amendment," our lawyers said.
And because Dispatch only published "fragments" of the Cybersitter
database (a word used first by Milburn in his own threatening letter), such
publication "fits squarely within the fair use provisions" of the
copyright act, our lawyers reminded Milburn.
Finally, Milburn was left to chew on this: "If you persist in accusing
[Dispatch] falsely of copyright infringement and if you proceed with your
ill-conceived threat to encourage the FBI to commence activities... you
should understand that, unless the information you provide is accurate and
complete, you and your firm may be incurring liability of your own."
Not a peep has been heard from Milburn since he received that letter, until
he decided to pick on the kid.
Milburn is apparently operating in some alternative reality. His so-called
"confirmed sources" about Haselton "ghost writing" our
original story are utterly false.
Haselton had nothing to do with our article. Dispatch obtained the cracked
code of Cybersitter and the other programs we mentioned from an entirely
different source. Haselton did nothing but build on the work of our
original story, but never wrote a single word of the article nor did he
provide us with the hacked databases.
All of Milburn's heartburn has me confused. Rather than try and slay
Haselton, he should pay him for the right to reprint his article and
findings. Milburn makes no apologies for his agenda; indeed, he is proud
that one of his major distributors is "Focus on the Family" a
conservative Christian organization.
And for people that brook with the conservative, straight-arrow family
values ideals that Focus on the Family advocates, Cybersitter is the
perfect fit. Indeed, this is the free market working at its best. Products
spring up in direct response to demand. Cybersitter fits that model for a
particular segment of the society. You may not like it; I certainly
wouldn't use a product with this built in agenda, but nobody is making
us buy it.
You would think that Milburn would eat up such "negative" press
and wear it like a badge of honor. But he is too petty; too small minded.
And when he discovers that Haselton did nothing more than run Cybersitter
through its paces, much the same way that a reviewer for computer magazine
might, and then report the findings, he'll have nobody left to harass. I
hope he doesn't have a dog he can kick...
Have a Merry Christmas, Mr. Milburn. Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men.
Meeks out...
Cybersitter Goes after Teen
8:00 pm PST 9 Dec 96 - A teenager who founded a Net anti-censorship group
could face a lawsuit from the owner of the popular blocking program
Cybersitter, Solid Oak Software, on grounds that he illegally obtained the
list of sites blocked by the program.
But the 18-year-old student at Vanderbilt University who founded Peacefire,
Bennett Haselton, says that he merely ran the blocking software on his
computer and kept track of which sites were blocked - such as the National
Organization for Women, Mother Jones, and The Well.
"According to our sources, he has engaged in illegal criminal copyright
violations to further his juvenile teenaged political agenda, and reduce
the effectiveness of our product," said Brian Milburn, president of
Solid Oak Software.
Solid Oak has added Peacefire to its list of blocked sites and has asked
Peacefire's Internet provider, Media3, to remove Peacefire from its server.
Milburn has also said he will block out all content Media3 hosts if it does
not remove Haselton's site.
"It's pretty ironic that Cybersitter, which is supposed to help kids,
is blocking a student-run organization," Haselton said. Peacefire was
founded in August and now has about 100 members, of whom the average age is
15 years old.
Haselton wrote an article naming some of Cybersitter's blocked sites last
month on the Peacefire Web site, but the site wasn't blocked until Friday,
after Haselton contacted Milburn to discuss the company's blocking
practices, Haselton said. The student was then told that Solid Oak had
referred the matter to its legal department.
"There was no way he could have known who was on our list without
breaking into our system," said Solid Oak spokesman Mark Kanter.
"The filter had to be decoded by reverse engineering" - a process
of taking a piece of technology and, without any knowledge of the techniques
used to create it, making a copy.
In an email written to Media3 on Friday, and forwarded to Wired News by
Media3's administrator, Joe Hayes, Milburn said that Haselton "has
made it his mission in life to defame our product," and warned that
all content to Media3 - some 2,500 domain names - would be blocked on
Cybersitter if Peacefire was not removed.
"We realize this is an extreme measure and regret that our customers
will no longer have access to any sites serviced by Media3. I am not sure
if any of our current customers are Media3 subscribers, but as they will no
longer be able to access their email and such, we will offer any affected
customers complete refunds," Milburn said in the email.
Hayes said Solid Oak has given him no proof that Haselton has done anything
illegal, so he would not remove Peacefire, and noted that among the content
on Media3's server is a Mayflower Society Bulletin Board and "everything
to do with Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock." Hayes added that Media3's
attorneys have been alerted to the situation, and if the ISP is blocked, it
will take legal action. Solid Oak does not normally inform sites they have
been blocked.
Copyright (c) 1993-97 Wired Ventures, Inc. and affiliated companies.
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Fredric L. Rice (frice@raids.org)
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Jacking in from the "Your Agenda is Showing" Port:
by Rebecca Vesely
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