Symantec Says No To Pro-Gun Sites

cluge writes "A recent American Rifleman contained small column that said that Symantec's new Internet Security 2004 would block pro gun rights sites (i.e. NRA sites), while not blocking similar anti-gun rights web sites. Being the eternal skeptic, this claim was tested by downloading the trial version and running some tests against it. To my surprise I found the every NRA site was blocked and was in the category 'weapons.' This even included the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. Some sites that were not blocked were notable anti-gun rights sites such as The Brady Campaign, and Good Bye Guns. The only anti-gun rights site that was blocked that I could find was Hand Gun Control's web site." Read on for more.

cluge continues: "My rather informal test still raises the spectre that a large corporate entity may be clandestinely trying to sway you or your child's political views by censoring content from one side of a political debate. This is indeed chilling, especially considering that such software is required to be used in libraries to protect children. Is this political slant common in censorware? Have slashdotters found similar glitches in other 'parental control' software?"

Slashdot has certainly covered censorware before, but reports like this are still valuable as the world evolves.

Whoever is responsible

[Anonymous Coward]

deserves to be shot.

Oh shit...

[BJH]

...here comes another +1000-comment pro-gun/anti-gun flamewar :(

Obligatory...

[Dr Reducto]

You don't want the King of England to just walk in here and start pushing you around, do you? Huh?

Disclaimer: I am an avid shooter and a member of the NRA.

Re:Hypocrites.

[velocipenguin]

Can anyone recommend a good non-symantec antivirus and software firewall? I hear unplugging your computer is great for stopping hackers and viruses.

Re:Hypocrites.

[CaptBubba]

But if you unplug it, doesn't that leave open ports in the back of it?

Re:Can We Say Liberals?

[Anonymous Coward]

Guns don't kill people. Bullets kill people.

Re:Can We Say Liberals?

[azzy]

So let's keep the guns, and get rid of the people.

The next version of Winfax...

[Anonymous Coward]

...has a new feature that replaces the fax station ID with a random pro software activation message. It also promises to start working correctly as well.

Re:ACLU to help out?

[Jeffrey Baker]

Basically anybody who I can predict what they are going to say before they open their mouth (Charles Heston or Michael Moore) just bores the shit out of me.

You must be seriously disappointed with the state of Slashdot these days!

Re:Oh shit...

[CGP314]

If you use Symantec's product, it's only a 500 comment anti-gun rant. :)

Re:Eddie Izzard.

[beebware]

I disagree: I've always found pointing my fingers and somebody and shouting "Bang!" kills them as good as a gun does.

Re:Hypocrites.

[Throtex]

You've obviously never tried to explain Goatse.cx to a 10 year old. :)

Re:Hypocrites.

[Anonymous Coward]

And you have? Please tell us how that went.

"Well, this man likes to insert large things into his pooper, so he has stretched it a little. Now, he's so proud of how wide it is, that he wants to show it to everybody on the internet."

That wasn't too hard, was it?

Thread summed up. (Top Ten List)

[fuqqer]

1. Lots of posts saying that Symantec is a private corp and can do what they want.
2. A Few retorts saying that even though Symantec is private, their software is being used in libraries, thereby censoring or applying their views to government funded institutions that are supposed to be neutral.
3. Huge flamewar about how gun control is good or bad.
4. People bitching about the ACLU and whether or not it will defend second ammendment rights and if it's a second ammendment issue or a first ammendement issue.
5. Nobody talking about how they could use a gun to go hunting and get food.
6. I hate Sementec / I love Symantec flamewar, what's the best firewall?.
7. Conservative Bashing / Liberal Bashing / George Bush = Adolf Hitler posts.
8. Are you still reading this list?
9. A LOT of posts about how the US sucks and the Euros and Japanese are doing everyting right with guns, crime, patents, and any other government regulation issues.
10. I have no sig, so I thought I'd make number 10 some kind of question on how to make a recursive post sig. How would it be done?

Re:Hypocrites.

[Asgard]

Parking that thing would be a pain; I'd recommend a Harrier Jumpjet instead.

Re:Hypocrites.

[BLAG-blast]

Yay! I can stop viruses and render all my games useless! All that, and I still get the privledge of installing patches regularly. Sign me up!

You know, that some where some CEO will read this
and think "hey, no viruses and no games? Sounds like
it would increase productivity".....

Re:Hypocrites.

[phthisic]

It concerns me that you're a junior high teacher and in one paragraph you mix tenses, mispell a word, and end a sentence with a preposition.

The issue at hand is not pornography, it is political speech. Should your post be blocked because it discusses pornography? Block porn, block sites promoting gun violence. Do not block sites discussing these issues as politics. Especially to not block sites concerning one side of the issue and not the other.

Re:Hypocrites.

[An Ominous Cow Erred]

Well, a Harrier would be nice, but he'll have to collect all the Pepsi points for it first. ^_-

Re:Hmm

[Datawatch99]

I'll let you 'non Americans' in on a little secret.... we have guns just in case those fucking British try to take back the colonies. You guys should get some guns too, just in case the fucking Brits show up on your door step demanding you pay them a tax for that shovel you made in your garage with materials you found in your backyard. Thats what they used to do to us. Until we got guns. You know how those damn British can be.

Re:as a sysadmin ...

[Mr.Phil]

I notice that gun nut / 2nd amendment users are always screwing off looking gun websites when not wasting time talking about guns. Normal non-gun nut people don't usually waste time looking at anti gun websites. So there.

If your site is anything like the site I admin, I agree. The gun nuts look at NRA/gun related sites and the "normal non-gun nut" people surf porn.