Winners of the Foil the Filters Contest Censorship9/28/2000; 7:35:03 PM This page is funny enough to be catagorized in Humor/Amusing, but the more you think about it, the less funny it gets. This is only a sample:We hope this contest will help illustrate how unreliable censorware is and provide further examples for those interested in exposing it. And of these examples, these are our favorites....Grand PrizeJoe J. reports being prevented from accessing his own high school’s Web site from his own high school’s library.

Amazon.com Apologizes, Microsoft Changes Outlook Express Misc. 9/28/2000; 7:25:29 PM Two follow-ups on stories run previously: Amazon.com has apologized for the variable-pricing experiments and has issued full refunds to those who paid more then the minimum. Microsoft has re-written the promotional ad stuck on the end of the e-mail message they offer to send out for you, but some are still concerned that the e-mail is going out at all, as it still may look like spam.

Carnivore Review Team Exposed! Surveillance and Privacy from Government9/27/2000; 9:18:49 PM Wow, is this ever a screw-up on the part of the Justice Department!'Now it turns out that an embarrassing oversight by the Justice Department has revealed confidential information about the team of researchers hired to conduct the review. 'On Tuesday, the Justice Department placed the 51-page PDF file online, with project information such as names, phone numbers, and government security clearances erased with thick black bars.

Tsja LinkBack 9/27/2000; 7:54:41 PM New Member: Tsaj. 'Partly English, partly Dutch about culture and local news from around the world.'

Are digital signatures a threat? Misc.9/27/2000; 4:03:50 PM 'Digital signatures provide an Internet user with a unique identity document protected by encryption keys which serves to assure a third party that a document, a message or a transaction comes from who it says it does. The technology may help to soothe consumer fears about the dangers posed by computer hackers and the risks of using credit cards online or sending messages securely.

Microsoft Spamming? Spam & E-Mail 9/27/2000; 2:52:58 PM 'judges1617 writes [on Slashdot]: ''Microsoft is now testing a beta version of their MSN Explorer that sends e-mails to everyone in your Outlook Address, informing them that your e-mail address has changed and invites them to to try MSN. Even the people who use MSN are complaining, but M$ refuses to acknowledge it is doing anything wrong. Read the whole story here'' The best part of this article is the MS reps argument about why this isn't spam "

Congressman: I Want My MP3 Music & MP39/27/2000; 9:12:10 AM 'A bill introduced in the House could dramatically alter the landscape that led to massive copyright violations against MP3.com, and open the door for competitors to stream into the digital locker space unimpeded by licensing agreements. 'Representative Rich Boucher (D-Virginia) -- along with three Republicans -- introduced legislation Monday that would make it legal to create a database of sound recordings for the sole purpose of transmitting those recordings to individuals who had previously purchased music.

LinkBack reset again LinkBack9/27/2000; 8:49:24 AM LinkBack was reset again, due to a large number of issues, including the computer it is running on only having 64 megabytes of ram, which I was being rather wasteful of. A new slimmer LinkBack is now running, which will hopefully stay stable, except for the lousy network connection @Home gives me, which I can't do much about.To make up for that, I'd like to extend a Manila-only offer to LinkBack participants (I think that's all anybody's using anyhow).

Non-Profit Research Team To to Review Carnivore Surveillance and Privacy from Government9/26/2000; 9:07:39 PM Having failed to convince any University computer departments to review Carnivore, the Justice Department has found a non-profit organization brave enough to tread where academics fear to.'IITRI's review team, including unspecified faculty members from the Chicago-Kent College of Law, was to start work immediately and wind up by December, when a report was to be made available for public comment.

Web Advertisers Want To Cut Spam Down Spam & E-Mail9/26/2000; 9:36:22 AM 'The Responsible Electronic Communications Alliance, which includes DoubleClick, 24/7 Media, Bigfoot Interactive and ClickAction Inc., says [their proposed] standards will cut down on the number of unwanted emails, or spam, that Internet users receive.'OK, correct me if I'm wrong, because I could be, but isn't the primary business of the four mentioned companies web advertising? Do we really care if the web advertisers make noises about reducing spam?