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PERSONAL COMPUTING / By PETER H. LEWIS
Internet Primer Written by and for Newbies
Experienced Internet users often make sport of newcomers to cyberspace,
scorching the so-called newbies for their lack of knowledge about the
Internet and the way it works. But three newbies acquitted themselves
especially well last week, writing one of the most lucid primers about the
Internet yet seen.
The primer, called Findings of Fact, was written by Dolores Sloviter, Ronald
Buckwalter and Stewart Dalzell, who by all accounts had only limited exposure
to the Internet before last March. Since then, however, the three -- who
hold day jobs as judges in Federal District Court in Philadelphia -- seem
to have grasped
the fundamentals of the Internet as few other newbies have.
Their explanation of the Internet, including what may be the first commercial
software review written by federal judges, can be found on-line at many
locations, including the Web addresses http://www.eff.org and
http://www.aclu.org.
Findings of Fact is the second part of a three-part court order that blocked
the enforcement of the Communications Decency Act, a new law Congress passed
as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The law, which the judges
found unconstitutional, would have made it a felony to send over the Internet
"indecent" or "patently offensive" information that is legal to print or
display in other media.
The Supreme Court of the United States may yet rule on appeal that the law
is, in fact, constitutional; or, the High Court may uphold the legal
reasoning of the Philadelphia judges and strike it down . Either way,
another important finding of the judges was that the Communications Decency
Act was not just unconstitutional, but also unworkable and impractical from a
technical standpoint.
The Findings of Fact explain why the most effective way to block
objectionable material on the Internet is for individuals to use filtering
software on their own personal computers, not for Congress or state
legislatures to make broad decrees. In other words, the judges wrote,
regulation is best from the bottom up, not from the top down.
The judges placed particular trust in the combination of software filters and
a voluntary ratings system called PICS (Platform for Internet Content
Selection), which has been endorsed by all of the major computer,
communications and on-line information service companies.
PICS works by inclusion, allowing access to only those sites that carry a
rating in such areas as violence and profanity, nudity and partial nudity,
sexual acts, gross depictions, racism, satanic or cult worship, drugs or
alcohol, militancy or extremism, gambling or activities of a dubious legal
nature. The filtering software, in contrast, works by exclusion, blocking
access to a regularly updated list of questionable sites.
Using excerpts from the court ruling, we will let the judges write the rest
of this column:
"When fully implemented, PICS-compatible World Wide Web browsers, Usenet News
Group readers, and other Internet applications, will provide parents the
ability to choose from a variety of rating services, or a combination of
services," the judges wrote.
"Until a majority of sites on the Internet have been rated by a PICS rating
service, PICS will initially function as a "positive" ratings system in which
only those sites that have been rated will be displayed using PICS compatible
software."
Regarding filtering software, the judges wrote:
"Examples of such software include: Cyber Patrol, CYBERsitter, The Internet
Filter, Net Nanny, Parental Guidance, SurfWatch, Netscape Proxy Server, and
WebTrack."
"Cyber Patrol," the judges wrote, "is also available from Microsystems
Software Inc. for $49.95, which includes a six-month subscription to the
CyberNOT blocked sites list (updated automatically once every seven days).
After six months, parents can receive six months of additional updates for
$19.95, or 12 months for $29.95."
"Cyber Patrol Home Edition, a limited version of Cyber Patrol, is available
free of charge on the Internet. To obtain either version, parents download a
seven-day demonstration version of the full Cyber Patrol product from the
Microsystems Internet World Wide Web Server. At the end of the seven-day
trial period, users are offered the opportunity to purchase the complete
version of Cyber Patrol or provide Microsystems some basic demographic
information in exchange for unlimited use of the Home Edition."
"Cyber Patrol is also available from Retail outlets as NetBlocker Plus.
NetBlocker Plus sells for $19.95, which includes five weeks of updates to the
CyberNOT list."
"SurfWatch is available for both Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, and
Microsoft Windows 95 Operating Systems, and works with direct Internet Access
Providers (e.g., Netcom, PSI, UUnet, AT&T and more than 1,000 other Internet
Service Providers)."
"The suggested retail price of SurfWatch Software is $49.95, with a street
price of between $20 and $25. The subscription service, which updates the
SurfWatch blocked site list automatically with new sites each month, is
available for $5.95 per month or $60 per year."
"SurfWatch is available at over 12,000 retail locations, including National
stores such as Comp USA, Egghead Software, Computer City, and several
national mail order outlets."
"Despite its limitations," the judges concluded, "currently available
user-based software suggests that a reasonably effective method by which
parents can prevent their children from accessing sexually explicit and other
material which parents may believe is inappropriate for their children will
soon be widely available."
Related Sites: Following are links to the external Web sites mentioned in
this article. These sites are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and
The Times has no control over their content or availability. When you have
finished visiting any of these sites, you will be able to return to this page
by clicking on your Web browser's "Back" button or icon until this page
reappears.
"http://www.eff.org">Electronic Frontier Foundation
"http://www.aclu.org">American Civil Liberties Union
Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company