Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site eosp1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!astrovax!fisher!eosp1!robison From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) Newsgroups: net.news,net.ai,net.legal Subject: Re: Software to screen future net news. Message-ID: <1326@eosp1.UUCP> Date: Tue, 8-Jan-85 12:15:51 EST Article-I.D.: eosp1.1326 Posted: Tue Jan 8 12:15:51 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 9-Jan-85 05:38:05 EST References: <494@vortex.UUCP> <32@osu-eddie.UUCP> Reply-To: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton Lines: 61 Xref: watmath net.news:2927 net.ai:2452 net.legal:1245 Summary: I've received some private mail with suggested ways to trick a software moderator. Based upon this I am getting MORE hopeful that software moderation can really be done. Maybe we don't even need sophisticated AI software to do it. The following argument has some unexpected curveballs in it so please follow carefully. We have two pre-requisites: (1) The software moderator (I'll call it "sofref") is a CONVENIENCE for people who want to avoid human moderation. It can be very restrictive. If you submit mail that doesn't follow its rules, you simply have to accept human moderation. Failure to follow sofref's rules doesn't cause you to get censored, just to be delayed. Some perfectly sensible types of mail could will be flunked by sofref. It doesn't have to accept all types of OK mail. (2) Sofref tries to accept material that is not libellous. If you make your pseudo-libellous remarks sufficiently cryptic, or well-hidden, THEY ARE NOT LIBELLOUS. There is an enormous body of law devoted to failed legal actions in which printed matter avoided libel by thinly disguising its intent. Sofref can accept mail provided it consists only of words known to it (except for the signature of the sender). To play it safe, it can flunk obscenities and aggressive words. (NOTE AGAIN, THIS DOES NOT MEAN SUCH MAIL WILL BE CENSORED BY COMPUTER, BUT ONLY THAT A HUMAN MODERATOR WILL DECIDE WHETHER IT IS ACTIONABLE OR INAPPROPRIATE TO THE NET.) People have suggested fooling sofref by mispelling people's names, e.g.: rreeaaggaaxnx. But sofref does not have to accept words it does not recognize. Several people have suggested tricking sofref by including vertical messages, or collections of letters that spell out cursewords pictographically. But sofref can flunk ALL pictures, and it can randomly rejustify all paragraphs to ruin vertical tricks. (If you need your message to be sent without re-justification, send it to the human moderator; this is not a new problem, telegrams used to be universally "shaped" by the telegraph company.) There may still be ways to sneak a curseword past sofref, BUT A SINGLE OBSCENITY CDOES NOT MAKE WRITING ACTIONABLE! In order to be libellous, one must say something in a number of words, and say it pretty clearly. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) {allegra, decvax!ittvax, fisher, princeton}!eosp1!robison