Edited Edupage, 29 Feb 1996

From:	IN%"educom@elanor.oit.unc.edu"  1-MAR-1996 00:53:05.93

>*****************************************************************
>Edupage, 29 February 1996.  Edupage, a summary of news items on information
>technology, is provided three times each week as a service by Educom,
>a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and universities
>seeking to transform education through the use of information technology.
>*****************************************************************

	The below has some relevance for the discussion on firewalls vs
encryption. It seems to give evidence for the needed solution being either
firewalls and encryption (external _and_ internal) or encryption alone.

>NO SAFETY ON THE NET
>A recent survey of businesses found nearly one in four are staying away from
>the Internet because they worry about electronic security breaches.  For
>instance, Merrill Lynch refuses to use the Net for any "value-bearing"
>business and has doubts about allowing customers to link up via the
>Internet.  Meanwhile, if your company uses an Intranet, you're not immune to
>security problems -- experts estimate that as much as 80% of all security
>losses are committed by company insiders.  The technical staff manager at
>Bell Labs notes:  "Our firewall keeps the bad guys out.  But you can't say
>there aren't bad guys inside the company."  (Information Week 19 Feb 96 p34)

	The below is worrisome; I am willing to bet that the European
governments might try to require it, and that the US might follow suit if the
CDA gets tossed out (analogous to the V-chip). I'll send a further message
after I've analyzed the rating system in question a bit more.

>SELF-PATROLLING THE WEB
>The World Wide Web Consortium is pushing the Web page rating system that it
>developed in cooperation with the Platform for Internet Content Selection, a
>group of 22 online firms.  Operators at about 20,000 Web sites have already
>coded themselves using the Internet Relay System, which is similar to the
>rating system for films.  To rate your Web site, go to the SafeSurf site at
>< http://www.safesurf.com/ > and fill out the form that helps them come up
>with a rating.  PICS members plan to pitch the system to European
>governments in an effort to avoid continental content restrictions.
>(Investor's Business Daily 28 Feb 96 A6)

>Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) & Suzanne Douglas
>(douglas@educom.edu).  Voice:  404-371-1853, Fax: 404-371-8057.  

>Technical support is provided by the Office of Information Technology,
>University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

>***************************************************************
>EDUPAGE is what you've just finished reading.  To subscribe to Edupage: send
>a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type:
>subscribe edupage Thomas Alva Edison (assuming that your name is Thomas Alva
>Edison;  if it's not, substitute your own name).  ...  To cancel, send a
>message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type:
>unsubscribe edupage.   (Subscription problems?  Send mail to
>educom@educom.unc.edu.)

>From EduPage via E. ALLEN SMITH:
> >SELF-PATROLLING THE WEB
> >The World Wide Web Consortium is pushing the Web page rating system that it
> >developed in cooperation with the Platform for Internet Content Selection, a
> >group of 22 online firms.  Operators at about 20,000 Web sites have already
> >coded themselves using the Internet Relay System, which is similar to the
> >rating system for films.  To rate your Web site, go to the SafeSurf site at
> >< http://www.safesurf.com/ > and fill out the form that helps them come up
> >with a rating.  

I couldn't resist the temptation. I rushed out and rated my home page
as evil incarnate, at least according to
the SafeSurf rating system. No innocent rugrats are gonna be learning
anything about my work in crypto and symbolic computation on the web !

It's, uh, interesting to note that "homosexual themes" gets a whole
separate category from "heterosexual themes". :[

Here's the reply I received after filling out the SafeSurf web form. It looks
as though anyone can use the code below by sticking it in their HTML as
directed:

--- begin included message ---

>To: lmccarth@cs.umass.edu
>From: SafeSurf Rating Page
>Subject: Rating your site with the SafeSurf System
____________________________________________________________
01_Site = www.cs.umass.edu/~lmccarth/ 
Email_Address = lmccarth@cs.umass.edu 
(SS~~000)  Recommended Age = 9. Explicitly for Adults 
(SS~~001)  Profanity = 9. Explicit and Crude 
(SS~~002)  Heterosexual Themes = 9. Explicit and Crude or Explicitly Inviting Participation 
(SS~~003)  Homosexual Themes = 9. Explicit and Crude or Explicitly Inviting Participation 
(SS~~004)  Nudity = 9. Explicit and Crude 
(SS~~005)  Violence = 9. Encouraging Personal Participation, Weapon Making 
(SS~~006)  Sex Violence and Profanity = 9. Explicit and Crude 
(SS~~007)  Intolerance = 9. Advocating Violent or Hateful Action 
(SS~~008)  Drug Use = 9. Soliciting Personal Participation 
(SS~~009)  Other Adult Themes = 9. Explicit and Crude or Explicitly Inviting Participation 
(SS~~00A)  Gambling = 9. Providing Means with Stakes 
____________________________________________________________

The following code should be placed directly after the <HEAD> statement of your HTML document:

<META http-equiv="PICS-Label" content='(PICS 1.0 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" l r (SS~~000 9 SS~~001 9 SS~~002 9 SS~~003 9 SS~~004 9 SS~~005 9 SS~~006 9 SS~~007 9 SS~~008 9 SS~~009 9 SS~~00A 9 SS~~100 1))'>

____________________________________________________________
 
Here's an example of how to place the code in your HTML document: 
<HTML> 
<HEAD> 
<META http-equiv="PICS-Label" content='(PICS 1.0 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" l r (SS~~000 9 SS~~001 9 SS~~002 9 SS~~003 9 SS~~004 9 SS~~005 9 SS~~006 9 SS~~007 9 SS~~008 9 SS~~009 9 SS~~00A 9 SS~~100 1))'> 
<TITLE> Your Web Page Title </TITLE> </HEAD>
<BODY> 
--- Your Content Begins here -- 
____________________________________________________________
Thank you for making the Internet a safer place without censorship.
Until later, SafeSurfing to you!

E. ALLEN SMITH writes:
 > The below is worrisome; I am willing to bet that the European
 > governments might try to require it, and that the US might follow suit if the
 > CDA gets tossed out (analogous to the V-chip). I'll send a further message
 > after I've analyzed the rating system in question a bit more.

Require it?  Of whom?  

What will all these people do the day somebody implements a new
web-like internet protocol and makes a daemon available for free
anonymous download?  There seems to be some kind of wierd idea
floating around that all we need to do is to "rate those web pages".

Anyway, I don't know what more needs to be said about a rating system
other than that it's a rating system.

______c_____________________________________________________________________
Mike M Nally * Tiv^H^H^H IBM * Austin TX    * pain is inevitable  
       m5@tivoli.com * m101@io.com          *
      <URL:http://www.io.com/~m101>         * suffering is optional