Bob Allisat wrote:
Technicians have no right to scan any mail for
contents that does not violate the more important
civil rights of citizens to privacy and precious
freedoms of expression. What Mr. Howard is, in fact,
proposing is the computer systems equivalent of that
staff of thousands in the form of software that scans
and then junks anything the programmers decide is
unacceptable. Which is totally egregious.
The programmers would not get to make those decisions. They would
instead be made, in effect, by my customers through their choice
of service provider.
Instead of designing systems and software that can
handle the modern volume of electronic communications
(the good the bad and the ugly) these allegedly capable
The volume of mail isn't the issue. It's the annoyance factor
that my customers face. I already get complaints from customers
just because I have not actually implemented/deployed any of
the blocking facilities I speak of. I want to, and I suspect
I will have to.
professionals advocate choking off what "We the People"
can or cannot send each other and call it a public
service. When in fact the public would be served far
more by recieiving all of the mail from systems that
didin't choke at every silly cyber-flyer, dumb make
money scheme or wedding/birth announcement.
I have no plans to block by content. My current plans are to block
known open relays and dialup ports. I won't need to look inside the
mail (by program) at all to make the blocking decision.