February 28, 2006

BoingBoing Censorware'd, Blacklisted As Nudity, and "Secure Computing" Note

The top-1 blog BoingBoing got blacklisted by SmartFilter as "Nudity", leading to the most publicity about censorware seen in a while.

As an unpaid freelancer, err, I mean, a "citizen journalist", I called up the censorware company ("Secure Computing") to ask if they had any official statement on the matter. I was told someone would get back to me, though they never did, which I suppose is just as well. On the off chance they'll come by and read me (as I gave my role as a blogger and the name of my blog), I'll have to refrain writing a few things I would otherwise do.

In the course of the conversation, I got a bit of censorware news confirmed publicly (I'd previously known it privately, but unsure whether it was off-the-record or not). This may not mean much to many readers, but long-time censorware critics will be interested to know that David Burt, censorware-advocate from way back, has left his position as a PR flack at censorware company Secure Computing for a position as a PR flack at Microsoft. All indications are that this was a jump and not a push, and that's all I'll say on that.

[Update: No action the following day either. Where's the glamour of being a blogger when you need it?]

By Seth Finkelstein | posted in censorware | on February 28, 2006 11:52 PM (Infothought permalink)
Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog (Wikipedia, Google, censorware, and an inside view of net-politics) - Syndicate site (subscribe, RSS)

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