madcow writes “Boingboing reports that apparently Redmond doesn’t want us creating “dirty” blogs. What’s odd is that some dirty things can be created:
“My attempt to create an MSN Spaces blog called “Pornography and The Law” is met with rude red text advising me to can the profanity. So, if I were a law student who wanted to start a blog about the history of obscenity law in the United States, I’d be sh|t out of luck….Smoking Crack: A How-To Guide For Teens.” This wholesome little morsel, suggested by my NPR “Day to Day” producer Steve Proffitt, also made the grade. “
“The conclusion? A mixed bag of results that manages to do what most attempts to automate censorship do — make fools of the censors.””
the auto censorship follies
This reminds me of the censorship software I discovered at the public library in my hometown, Hattiesburg, MS–mind you, I wasn’t surprised; Hattiesburg is very conservative, even the libraries and librarians. Anyway,I discovered this software while compossing an email wherein I was complaining about being ‘pissed off’–pissed (and every other expletive I could think of) was ‘disallowed’. So, I had to settle on being ‘really angered’ in my email. Maybe some censorship software is more guided, but washing my emails mouth out with soap is ridiculous and going too far w/ my free speech–towit, it pisses me off.