Congress, Vatican Moving Toward Censorware

CNet has a good status update on censorware, chock-full of facts and links. So-called "filtering" products are quietly inching toward a nationwide mandate in schools and libraries that take federal funds. It also turns out they are supported by the Catholic Church.

Index of Prohibited Web Pages

[Seth Finkelstein]

Often when people ask me to describe my position on censorware, I compare it specifically to the Catholic Church's Prohibited Index. I even wrote an essay Comstock in the '90, or the Index of Prohibited Web Books [censorware.org].

Another good article along these lines is the humor (so far) piece Esther Dyson announces ratings partnership with Vatican [mit.edu] (collected as part of a page I had of Freedom of Expression Satire and Humor [mit.edu])

Oh well, I started talking about this stuff in 1995 [mit.edu], and much of what I said is coming true. Nowadays I just console myself about the cocktail-party way of doing things.

- The Boston Lunatic