Re: TECH: Is PICS a threat to Free Speech?

Mark Grant (mark@unicorn.com)
Tue, 1 Jul 1997 11:24:12 +0100 (BST)

>Is there a way for PEOPLE to get around other PEOPLE <using> filters to
>censor them without their consent? For example, is there a way for a
>clever enough Chineese citizen to gain access to those parts of the Net
>the Chinnees Government has blocked? Can a high-level filtering system be
>hacked? And if so, how?

Yep; web-forwarding (e.g. www.anonymizer.com), email-to-web gateways (you
send a message requesting a certain URL and it mails it back to you),
steganography (hiding 'dangerous' information inside inoccuous images, web
pages or sound files). The first two can be blocked by the government, but
it can simply change URL and/or email address and set up at an uncensored
site. They could content-filter, but that would massively increase the
load on their routers and it still wouldn't catch the steganography.

Mark