US PTO Blocks Access to Certain Websites
Now then, this is the Patent and Trademark Office of the United States! See the story here: http://keionline.org/node/1548 [FWIW, back in the day, I was one of three contract SEs - me, a Vietnamese woman and a Malaysian woman, both ethnic Chinese - who put in their first full text retrieval system. At the time I worked for a German independent software house. My son, a mechanical engineer fresh out of university, went to work there as an examiner last year. We engineered that system before he was born. They were still using it!] [Apropos, his tenure didn't last too long. Let's say in regard to too many applications, his intuit ran counter too often to that of his immediate supervisor, resulting in the inevitable conflict. This, after I told the boy to shut up and go along with the program! But noooooo. :-)]. - Carlton ============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 *Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* =============================
Ooops!! (from the same URL, edited:) Update: At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi
network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block "political activist" sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.
Makes you wonder what the contractor was doing creating the filter in the first place. - Evan On 20 September 2012 09:52, Carlton Samuels <carlton.samuels@gmail.com>wrote:
Now then, this is the Patent and Trademark Office of the United States! See the story here: http://keionline.org/node/1548
[FWIW, back in the day, I was one of three contract SEs - me, a Vietnamese woman and a Malaysian woman, both ethnic Chinese - who put in their first full text retrieval system. At the time I worked for a German independent software house. My son, a mechanical engineer fresh out of university, went to work there as an examiner last year. We engineered that system before he was born. They were still using it!]
[Apropos, his tenure didn't last too long. Let's say in regard to too many applications, his intuit ran counter too often to that of his immediate supervisor, resulting in the inevitable conflict. This, after I told the boy to shut up and go along with the program! But noooooo. :-)].
- Carlton ============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 *Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* ============================= _______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
-- Evan Leibovitch Toronto Canada Em: evan at telly dot org Sk: evanleibovitch Tw: el56
On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 3:57 AM, Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> wrote:
Ooops!!
(from the same URL, edited:)
Update: At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi
network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block "political activist" sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.
Makes you wonder what the contractor was doing creating the filter in the first place.
- Evan
Excellent point Evan. Apparently it was done by Blue Coat and James Tyre kindly provided this link https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/blue-coat-acknowledges-syrian-governme... To see the categories they used for blocking, visit: http://goo.gl/UY4fz [Thanks to James Love for providing the link] James Love wrote about how they as political activists were blocked, see: USPTO blocks web access to "Political/Activist Groups" including KEI, ACLU, EFF, Public Citizen, Redstate, DailyKos <http://keionline.org/node/1548> - View <http://keionline.org/node/1548> - What links here <http://keionline.org/node/1548/backlinks> Submitted by James Love on 18. September 2012 - 12:32 *Update:* At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block "political activist" sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed. Today I was visiting the USPTO, for a high level meeting on global negotiations on intellectual property and access to medicine. The meeting was held in the Stockholm Room, on the 2nd floor of the USPTO library, at the main USPTO building at 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA. The USPTO also uses these meeting rooms for its Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA). The USPTO offers free Wifi for the visitors. But when I tried to login to http://keionline.org, I received this message: Access Denied (content_filter_denied) Your request was denied because this URL contains content that is categorized as: "Political/Activist Groups" which is blocked by USPTO policy. If you believe the categorization is inaccurate, please contact the USPTO Service Desk and request a manual review of the URL. For assistance, contact USPTO OCIO IT Service Desk. (io-proxy4) We checked and found that the USPTO blocks access to a number of groups that have followed SOPA and the TPP intellectual property negotiations, particularly those critical of the USPTO positions on intellectual property issues. Among the NGOs that were blocked were aclu.org, cdt.org, citizen.org , eff.org, healthgap.org, keionline.org andpublicknowledge.org. Among the sites NOT BLOCKED were the industry lobby groups BSA, MPPA, RIIA, and PhRMA. The USPTO also selectively blocks certain blogs and new sites, including, for example, dailykos.coms, firedoglake.com, redstate.org, rushlimbaugh.com andtalkingpointsmemo.com., Here are examples of what the USPTO blocks, and does not block. *Blocked NGOs* aclu.org cdt.org citizen.org eff.org healthgap.org keionline.org publicknowledge.org*NGOs that are NOT blocked* bsa.org creativecommons.org iipa.com iipi.org ipi.org mpaa.org PhRMA.org pubpat.org RIIA.Org stockholm-network.org *Blocked Blogs and news outlets*dailykos.coms firedoglake.com redstate.org rushlimbaugh.com talkingpointsmemo.com *Blogs and new outlets that are NOT blocked* 71patent.blogspot.com aljazeera.com boingboing.net dailycaller.com democracynow.org drudgereport.com groklaw.net huffingtonpost.com ip-watch.org itcblog.com lessig.org michaelgeist.ca nationalreview.com spicyipindia.blogspot.com techdirt.com washingtonmonthly.com - James Love's blog <http://keionline.org/blog/jamie> - Add new comment <http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548#comment-form> - Printer-friendly version <http://keionline.org/print/1548> - Send by email <http://keionline.org/printmail/1548> Cause of foul up <http://keionline.org/node/1548#comment-7970> Submitted by Anonymous dude or dudess on 19. September 2012 - 12:02. 'Ex-Patent Examiner here. If this was anything other than a contractor foul-up, I'll eat my hat. There were a dozen instances where I'd need to call the help desk to access a website that would enable me to do my job.' If true, this means no one at USPTO tried to access those sites and asked for the filter to be removed since it was implemented. - reply <http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548/7970>
Thanks Sala for sending the link to the categories the Bluecoat Filter may be programmed to block. I have just copied them inline here: Abortion<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Adult/Mature Content<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Alcohol<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Alternative Sexuality/Lifestyles<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Alternative Spirituality/Belief<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Art/Culture<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Auctions<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Audio/Video Clips<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Blogs/Personal Pages<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Brokerage/Trading<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Business/Economy<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Charitable Organizations<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Chat/Instant Messaging<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Child Pornography<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Computers/Internet<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Content Servers<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Dynamic DNS Host<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Education<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Email<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Entertainment<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Extreme<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Financial Services<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> For Kids<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Gambling<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Games<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Government/Legal<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Greeting Cards<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Hacking<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Health<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Humor/Jokes<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Illegal Drugs<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Informational<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Internet Telephony<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Intimate Apparel/Swimsuit<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Job Search/Careers<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> LGBT<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Malicious Outbound Data/Botnets<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Malicious Sources<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Media Sharing<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Military<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> News/Media<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Newsgroups/Forums<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Non-viewable<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Nudity<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Online Meetings<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Online Storage<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Open/Mixed Content<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Pay to Surf<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Peer-to-Peer (P2P)<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Personals/Dating<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Phishing<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Placeholders<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Political/Activist Groups<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Pornography<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Potentially Unwanted Software<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Proxy Avoidance<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Radio/Audio Streams<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Real Estate<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Reference<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Religion<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Remote Access Tools<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Restaurants/Dining/Food<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Scam/Questionable/Illegal<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Search Engines/Portals<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Sex Education<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Shopping<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Social Networking<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Society/Daily Living<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Software Downloads<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Spam<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Sports/Recreation<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Suspicious<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Tobacco<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Translation<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Travel<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> TV/Video Streams<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Vehicles<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Violence/Hate/Racism<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Weapons<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Web Advertisements<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Web Applications<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Web Hosting<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Click on any link and it gives an explanation of intent, *inclusive* of example websites. For example for the Abortion category, it refers abortionfacts.com. When I read the thread - and before I made the original post to the list - it was the torturous explanation that got to me. Explanations of the type 'well, it was standard procedure' or 'whaddya know, the slack-jawed geek we had doing this went off on a frolic of his own' strains credulity. I have worked as a contractor in several US federal government agencies in the DC area, including the PTO. This was in the late 80's. Note the time period and what was happening then. My area of expertise was network systems and binary object processing. I cannot see a COTR allowing you, a contracted geek, to setup such a filter profile without direct oversight. - Carlton ============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 *Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* ============================= On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 2:55 PM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro < salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 3:57 AM, Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> wrote:
Ooops!!
(from the same URL, edited:)
Update: At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi
network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block "political activist" sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.
Makes you wonder what the contractor was doing creating the filter in the first place.
- Evan
Excellent point Evan. Apparently it was done by Blue Coat and James Tyre kindly provided this link
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/blue-coat-acknowledges-syrian-governme...
To see the categories they used for blocking, visit: http://goo.gl/UY4fz [Thanks to James Love for providing the link]
James Love wrote about how they as political activists were blocked, see:
USPTO blocks web access to "Political/Activist Groups" including KEI, ACLU, EFF, Public Citizen, Redstate, DailyKos <http://keionline.org/node/1548>
- View <http://keionline.org/node/1548> - What links here <http://keionline.org/node/1548/backlinks>
Submitted by James Love on 18. September 2012 - 12:32
*Update:* At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block "political activist" sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.
Today I was visiting the USPTO, for a high level meeting on global negotiations on intellectual property and access to medicine. The meeting was held in the Stockholm Room, on the 2nd floor of the USPTO library, at the main USPTO building at 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA. The USPTO also uses these meeting rooms for its Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA). The USPTO offers free Wifi for the visitors. But when I tried to login to http://keionline.org, I received this message:
Access Denied (content_filter_denied)
Your request was denied because this URL contains content that is categorized as: "Political/Activist Groups" which is blocked by USPTO policy. If you believe the categorization is inaccurate, please contact the USPTO Service Desk and request a manual review of the URL.
For assistance, contact USPTO OCIO IT Service Desk. (io-proxy4)
We checked and found that the USPTO blocks access to a number of groups that have followed SOPA and the TPP intellectual property negotiations, particularly those critical of the USPTO positions on intellectual property issues. Among the NGOs that were blocked were aclu.org, cdt.org, citizen.org , eff.org, healthgap.org, keionline.org andpublicknowledge.org. Among the sites NOT BLOCKED were the industry lobby groups BSA, MPPA, RIIA, and PhRMA.
The USPTO also selectively blocks certain blogs and new sites, including, for example, dailykos.coms, firedoglake.com, redstate.org, rushlimbaugh.com andtalkingpointsmemo.com.,
Here are examples of what the USPTO blocks, and does not block. *Blocked NGOs* aclu.org cdt.org citizen.org eff.org healthgap.org keionline.org publicknowledge.org*NGOs that are NOT blocked* bsa.org creativecommons.org iipa.com iipi.org ipi.org mpaa.org PhRMA.org pubpat.org RIIA.Org stockholm-network.org *Blocked Blogs and news outlets*dailykos.coms firedoglake.com redstate.org rushlimbaugh.com talkingpointsmemo.com *Blogs and new outlets that are NOT blocked* 71patent.blogspot.com aljazeera.com boingboing.net dailycaller.com democracynow.org drudgereport.com groklaw.net huffingtonpost.com ip-watch.org itcblog.com lessig.org michaelgeist.ca nationalreview.com spicyipindia.blogspot.com techdirt.com washingtonmonthly.com
- James Love's blog <http://keionline.org/blog/jamie> - Add new comment <http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548#comment-form
- Printer-friendly version <http://keionline.org/print/1548> - Send by email <http://keionline.org/printmail/1548>
Cause of foul up <http://keionline.org/node/1548#comment-7970> Submitted by Anonymous dude or dudess on 19. September 2012 - 12:02.
'Ex-Patent Examiner here. If this was anything other than a contractor foul-up, I'll eat my hat. There were a dozen instances where I'd need to call the help desk to access a website that would enable me to do my job.' If true, this means no one at USPTO tried to access those sites and asked for the filter to be removed since it was implemented.
- reply <http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548/7970>
_______________________________________________ lac-discuss-en mailing list lac-discuss-en@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/lac-discuss-en
Thanks Carlton. My comments are in line. On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 9:06 AM, Carlton Samuels <carlton.samuels@gmail.com>wrote:
Thanks Sala for sending the link to the categories the Bluecoat Filter may be programmed to block. I have just copied them inline here: Abortion<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Adult/Mature Content<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Alcohol<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Alternative Sexuality/Lifestyles<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Alternative Spirituality/Belief<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Art/Culture<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Auctions<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Audio/Video Clips<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Blogs/Personal Pages<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Brokerage/Trading<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Business/Economy<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Charitable Organizations<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Chat/Instant Messaging<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Child Pornography<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Computers/Internet<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Content Servers<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Dynamic DNS Host<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Education<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Email<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Entertainment<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Extreme<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Financial Services<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> For Kids<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Gambling<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Games<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Government/Legal<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Greeting Cards<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Hacking<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Health<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Humor/Jokes<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Illegal Drugs<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Informational<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Internet Telephony<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Intimate Apparel/Swimsuit<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Job Search/Careers<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> LGBT<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Malicious Outbound Data/Botnets<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Malicious Sources<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Media Sharing<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Military<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> News/Media<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Newsgroups/Forums<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Non-viewable<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Nudity<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Online Meetings<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Online Storage<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Open/Mixed Content<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Pay to Surf<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Peer-to-Peer (P2P)<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Personals/Dating<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Phishing<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Placeholders<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Political/Activist Groups<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Pornography<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Potentially Unwanted Software<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Proxy Avoidance<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Radio/Audio Streams<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Real Estate<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Reference<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Religion<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Remote Access Tools<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Restaurants/Dining/Food<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Scam/Questionable/Illegal<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Search Engines/Portals<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Sex Education<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Shopping<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Social Networking<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Society/Daily Living<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Software Downloads<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Spam<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Sports/Recreation<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Suspicious<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Tobacco<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Translation<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Travel<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> TV/Video Streams<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Vehicles<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Violence/Hate/Racism<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Weapons<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Web Advertisements<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Web Applications<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US> Web Hosting<http://sitereview.bluecoat.com/catdesc.jsp?referrer=null&locale=en_US>
Click on any link and it gives an explanation of intent, *inclusive* of example websites. For example for the Abortion category, it refers abortionfacts.com.
When I read the thread - and before I made the original post to the list - it was the torturous explanation that got to me.
Explanations of the type 'well, it was standard procedure' or 'whaddya know, the slack-jawed geek we had doing this went off on a frolic of his own' strains credulity. I have worked as a contractor in several US federal government agencies in the DC area, including the PTO. This was in the late 80's. Note the time period and what was happening then. My area of expertise was network systems and binary object processing. I cannot see a COTR allowing you, a contracted geek, to setup such a filter profile without direct oversight.
I agree. Usually when contracts are drafted, they specify the scope of the filtering profile. It would be interested to see that "scope". Here we see a few things happening, one one hand, the contractor in this case like every other business is concerned about making money and frankly there is nothing wrong with that. We expect businesses to behave that way, don't we? However, what we perhaps may not expect is for the US Government through the US PTO to select a contractor that is known for helping the Syrians from catching dissidents etc. Or am I missing something??? As always Carlton, I love your posts :)
- Carlton
============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 *Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* =============================
On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 2:55 PM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro < salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 3:57 AM, Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> wrote:
Ooops!!
(from the same URL, edited:)
Update: At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi
network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block "political activist" sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.
Makes you wonder what the contractor was doing creating the filter in the first place.
- Evan
Excellent point Evan. Apparently it was done by Blue Coat and James Tyre kindly provided this link
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/blue-coat-acknowledges-syrian-governme...
To see the categories they used for blocking, visit: http://goo.gl/UY4fz [Thanks to James Love for providing the link]
James Love wrote about how they as political activists were blocked, see:
USPTO blocks web access to "Political/Activist Groups" including KEI, ACLU, EFF, Public Citizen, Redstate, DailyKos <http://keionline.org/node/1548>
- View <http://keionline.org/node/1548> - What links here <http://keionline.org/node/1548/backlinks>
Submitted by James Love on 18. September 2012 - 12:32
*Update:* At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi
network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block "political activist" sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.
Today I was visiting the USPTO, for a high level meeting on global negotiations on intellectual property and access to medicine. The meeting was held in the Stockholm Room, on the 2nd floor of the USPTO library, at the main USPTO building at 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA. The USPTO also uses these meeting rooms for its Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA). The USPTO offers free Wifi for the visitors. But when I tried to login to http://keionline.org, I received this message:
Access Denied (content_filter_denied)
Your request was denied because this URL contains content that is categorized as: "Political/Activist Groups" which is blocked by USPTO policy. If you believe the categorization is inaccurate, please contact the USPTO Service Desk and request a manual review of the URL.
For assistance, contact USPTO OCIO IT Service Desk. (io-proxy4)
We checked and found that the USPTO blocks access to a number of groups that have followed SOPA and the TPP intellectual property negotiations, particularly those critical of the USPTO positions on intellectual property issues. Among the NGOs that were blocked were aclu.org, cdt.org, citizen.org , eff.org, healthgap.org, keionline.org andpublicknowledge.org. Among the
sites NOT BLOCKED were the industry lobby groups BSA, MPPA, RIIA, and PhRMA.
The USPTO also selectively blocks certain blogs and new sites, including, for example, dailykos.coms, firedoglake.com, redstate.org, rushlimbaugh.com andtalkingpointsmemo.com.,
Here are examples of what the USPTO blocks, and does not block. *Blocked NGOs* aclu.org
cdt.org citizen.org eff.org healthgap.org keionline.org publicknowledge.org*NGOs that are NOT blocked* bsa.org
creativecommons.org iipa.com iipi.org ipi.org mpaa.org PhRMA.org pubpat.org RIIA.Org stockholm-network.org *Blocked Blogs and news outlets*dailykos.coms firedoglake.com redstate.org rushlimbaugh.com talkingpointsmemo.com *Blogs and new outlets that are NOT blocked*
71patent.blogspot.com aljazeera.com boingboing.net dailycaller.com democracynow.org drudgereport.com groklaw.net huffingtonpost.com ip-watch.org itcblog.com lessig.org michaelgeist.ca nationalreview.com spicyipindia.blogspot.com techdirt.com washingtonmonthly.com
- James Love's blog <http://keionline.org/blog/jamie> - Add new comment < http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548#comment-form> - Printer-friendly version <http://keionline.org/print/1548> - Send by email <http://keionline.org/printmail/1548>
Cause of foul up <http://keionline.org/node/1548#comment-7970>
Submitted by Anonymous dude or dudess on 19. September 2012 - 12:02.
'Ex-Patent Examiner here. If this was anything other than a contractor foul-up, I'll eat my hat. There were a dozen instances where I'd need to call the help desk to access a website that would enable me to do my job.' If true, this means no one at USPTO tried to access those sites and asked for the filter to be removed since it was implemented.
- reply <http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548/7970>
_______________________________________________ lac-discuss-en mailing list lac-discuss-en@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/lac-discuss-en
-- Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala P.O. Box 17862 Suva Fiji Twitter: @SalanietaT Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
Actually, if we look at the response that James Love got when he was blocked, it says that he was blocked according to the US PTO Policy. I would also love to see the Policy. The fact that they were blocked because of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations is very very very telling. Yes, they may have lifted it - but the question is WHY DID THEY DO IT in the first place? I have highlighted the relevant bits.
*Update:* At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi
network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block "political activist" sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.
Today I was visiting the USPTO, for a high level meeting on global negotiations on intellectual property and access to medicine. The meeting was held in the Stockholm Room, on the 2nd floor of the USPTO library, at the main USPTO building at 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA. The USPTO also uses these meeting rooms for its Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA). The USPTO offers free Wifi for the visitors. But when I tried to login to http://keionline.org, I received this message:
Access Denied (content_filter_denied)
Your request was denied because this URL contains content that is categorized as: "Political/Activist Groups" which is blocked by USPTO policy. If you believe the categorization is inaccurate, please contact the USPTO Service Desk and request a manual review of the URL.
For assistance, contact USPTO OCIO IT Service Desk. (io-proxy4)
We checked and found that the USPTO blocks access to a number of groups that have followed SOPA and the TPP intellectual property negotiations, particularly those critical of the USPTO positions on intellectual property issues. Among the NGOs that were blocked were aclu.org, cdt.org, citizen.org , eff.org, healthgap.org, keionline.org andpublicknowledge.org. Among the
sites NOT BLOCKED were the industry lobby groups BSA, MPPA, RIIA, and PhRMA.
The USPTO also selectively blocks certain blogs and new sites, including, for example, dailykos.coms, firedoglake.com, redstate.org, rushlimbaugh.com andtalkingpointsmemo.com.,
Here are examples of what the USPTO blocks, and does not block. *Blocked NGOs* aclu.org
cdt.org citizen.org eff.org healthgap.org keionline.org publicknowledge.org*NGOs that are NOT blocked* bsa.org
creativecommons.org iipa.com iipi.org ipi.org mpaa.org PhRMA.org pubpat.org RIIA.Org stockholm-network.org *Blocked Blogs and news outlets*dailykos.coms firedoglake.com redstate.org rushlimbaugh.com talkingpointsmemo.com *Blogs and new outlets that are NOT blocked*
71patent.blogspot.com aljazeera.com boingboing.net dailycaller.com democracynow.org drudgereport.com groklaw.net huffingtonpost.com ip-watch.org itcblog.com lessig.org michaelgeist.ca nationalreview.com spicyipindia.blogspot.com techdirt.com washingtonmonthly.com
- James Love's blog <http://keionline.org/blog/jamie> - Add new comment < http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548#comment-form> - Printer-friendly version <http://keionline.org/print/1548> - Send by email <http://keionline.org/printmail/1548>
Cause of foul up <http://keionline.org/node/1548#comment-7970>
Submitted by Anonymous dude or dudess on 19. September 2012 - 12:02.
'Ex-Patent Examiner here. If this was anything other than a contractor foul-up, I'll eat my hat. There were a dozen instances where I'd need to call the help desk to access a website that would enable me to do my job.' If true, this means no one at USPTO tried to access those sites and asked for the filter to be removed since it was implemented.
- reply <http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548/7970>
_______________________________________________ lac-discuss-en mailing list lac-discuss-en@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/lac-discuss-en
-- Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala P.O. Box 17862 Suva Fiji
Twitter: @SalanietaT Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
-- Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala P.O. Box 17862 Suva Fiji Twitter: @SalanietaT Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
Exactly! Expect now to be told this is a routine disclaimer, it means nothing in context. - Carlton ============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 *Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* ============================= On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 4:30 PM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro < salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro@gmail.com> wrote:
Actually, if we look at the response that James Love got when he was blocked, it says that he was blocked according to the US PTO Policy. I would also love to see the Policy. The fact that they were blocked because of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations is very very very telling.
Yes, they may have lifted it - but the question is WHY DID THEY DO IT in the first place?
I have highlighted the relevant bits.
*Update:* At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi
network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block "political activist" sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.
Today I was visiting the USPTO, for a high level meeting on global negotiations on intellectual property and access to medicine. The meeting was held in the Stockholm Room, on the 2nd floor of the USPTO library, at the main USPTO building at 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA. The USPTO also uses these meeting rooms for its Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA). The USPTO offers free Wifi for the visitors. But when I tried to login to http://keionline.org, I received this message:
Access Denied (content_filter_denied)
Your request was denied because this URL contains content that is categorized as: "Political/Activist Groups" which is blocked by USPTO policy. If you believe the categorization is inaccurate, please contact the USPTO Service Desk and request a manual review of the URL.
For assistance, contact USPTO OCIO IT Service Desk. (io-proxy4)
We checked and found that the USPTO blocks access to a number of groups that have followed SOPA and the TPP intellectual property negotiations, particularly those critical of the USPTO positions on intellectual property issues. Among the NGOs that were blocked were aclu.org, cdt.org, citizen.org , eff.org, healthgap.org, keionline.org andpublicknowledge.org. Among the
sites NOT BLOCKED were the industry lobby groups BSA, MPPA, RIIA, and PhRMA.
The USPTO also selectively blocks certain blogs and new sites, including, for example, dailykos.coms, firedoglake.com, redstate.org, rushlimbaugh.com andtalkingpointsmemo.com.,
Here are examples of what the USPTO blocks, and does not block. *Blocked NGOs* aclu.org
cdt.org citizen.org eff.org healthgap.org keionline.org publicknowledge.org*NGOs that are NOT blocked* bsa.org
creativecommons.org iipa.com iipi.org ipi.org mpaa.org PhRMA.org pubpat.org RIIA.Org stockholm-network.org *Blocked Blogs and news outlets*dailykos.coms firedoglake.com redstate.org rushlimbaugh.com talkingpointsmemo.com *Blogs and new outlets that are NOT blocked*
71patent.blogspot.com aljazeera.com boingboing.net dailycaller.com democracynow.org drudgereport.com groklaw.net huffingtonpost.com ip-watch.org itcblog.com lessig.org michaelgeist.ca nationalreview.com spicyipindia.blogspot.com techdirt.com washingtonmonthly.com
- James Love's blog <http://keionline.org/blog/jamie> - Add new comment < http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548#comment-form> - Printer-friendly version <http://keionline.org/print/1548> - Send by email <http://keionline.org/printmail/1548>
Cause of foul up <http://keionline.org/node/1548#comment-7970>
Submitted by Anonymous dude or dudess on 19. September 2012 - 12:02.
'Ex-Patent Examiner here. If this was anything other than a contractor foul-up, I'll eat my hat. There were a dozen instances where I'd need to call the help desk to access a website that would enable me to do my job.' If true, this means no one at USPTO tried to access those sites and asked for the filter to be removed since it was implemented.
- reply <http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548/7970>
_______________________________________________ lac-discuss-en mailing list lac-discuss-en@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/lac-discuss-en
-- Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala P.O. Box 17862 Suva Fiji
Twitter: @SalanietaT Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
-- Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala P.O. Box 17862 Suva Fiji
Twitter: @SalanietaT Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 9:35 AM, Carlton Samuels <carlton.samuels@gmail.com>wrote:
Exactly! Expect now to be told this is a routine disclaimer, it means nothing in context.
- Carlton
For one thing, the US Department of Commerce oversees the US PTO and IANA. This does nothing to generate confidence. I hope that ICANN General Counsels are monitoring the same.
============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 *Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* =============================
On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 4:30 PM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro < salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro@gmail.com> wrote:
Actually, if we look at the response that James Love got when he was blocked, it says that he was blocked according to the US PTO Policy. I would also love to see the Policy. The fact that they were blocked because of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations is very very very telling.
Yes, they may have lifted it - but the question is WHY DID THEY DO IT in the first place?
I have highlighted the relevant bits.
*Update:* At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi
network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block "political activist" sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.
Today I was visiting the USPTO, for a high level meeting on global negotiations on intellectual property and access to medicine. The meeting was held in the Stockholm Room, on the 2nd floor of the USPTO library, at the main USPTO building at 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA. The USPTO also uses these meeting rooms for its Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA). The USPTO offers free Wifi for the visitors. But when I tried to login to http://keionline.org, I received this message:
Access Denied (content_filter_denied)
Your request was denied because this URL contains content that is categorized as: "Political/Activist Groups" which is blocked by USPTO policy. If you believe the categorization is inaccurate, please contact the USPTO Service Desk and request a manual review of the URL.
For assistance, contact USPTO OCIO IT Service Desk. (io-proxy4)
We checked and found that the USPTO blocks access to a number of groups that have followed SOPA and the TPP intellectual property negotiations, particularly those critical of the USPTO positions on intellectual property issues. Among the NGOs that were blocked were aclu.org, cdt.org, citizen.org , eff.org, healthgap.org, keionline.org andpublicknowledge.org. Among the
sites NOT BLOCKED were the industry lobby groups BSA, MPPA, RIIA, and PhRMA.
The USPTO also selectively blocks certain blogs and new sites, including, for example, dailykos.coms, firedoglake.com, redstate.org, rushlimbaugh.com andtalkingpointsmemo.com.,
Here are examples of what the USPTO blocks, and does not block. *Blocked NGOs* aclu.org
cdt.org citizen.org eff.org healthgap.org keionline.org publicknowledge.org*NGOs that are NOT blocked* bsa.org
creativecommons.org iipa.com iipi.org ipi.org mpaa.org PhRMA.org pubpat.org RIIA.Org stockholm-network.org *Blocked Blogs and news outlets*dailykos.coms firedoglake.com redstate.org rushlimbaugh.com talkingpointsmemo.com *Blogs and new outlets that are NOT blocked*
71patent.blogspot.com aljazeera.com boingboing.net dailycaller.com democracynow.org drudgereport.com groklaw.net huffingtonpost.com ip-watch.org itcblog.com lessig.org michaelgeist.ca nationalreview.com spicyipindia.blogspot.com techdirt.com washingtonmonthly.com
- James Love's blog <http://keionline.org/blog/jamie> - Add new comment < http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548#comment-form> - Printer-friendly version <http://keionline.org/print/1548> - Send by email <http://keionline.org/printmail/1548>
Cause of foul up <http://keionline.org/node/1548#comment-7970>
Submitted by Anonymous dude or dudess on 19. September 2012 - 12:02.
'Ex-Patent Examiner here. If this was anything other than a contractor foul-up, I'll eat my hat. There were a dozen instances where I'd need to call the help desk to access a website that would enable me to do my job.' If true, this means no one at USPTO tried to access those sites and asked for the filter to be removed since it was implemented.
- reply <http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548/7970>
_______________________________________________ lac-discuss-en mailing list lac-discuss-en@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/lac-discuss-en
-- Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala P.O. Box 17862 Suva Fiji
Twitter: @SalanietaT Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
-- Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala P.O. Box 17862 Suva Fiji
Twitter: @SalanietaT Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
-- Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala P.O. Box 17862 Suva Fiji Twitter: @SalanietaT Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
Makes you wonder what the contractor was doing creating the filter in the first place.
Government networks all have filters to block access to porn and illegal materials. I don't know what the PTO was like 30 years ago, but these days it's infamously demoralized and poorly managed. Particularly during the radical outsourcing of the Bush administration, I can easily believe they would have contracted with some commercial filter company and not provided adequate oversight. Also keep in mind that a major reason for the filters is to avoid claims of a hostile work environment due to stuff that co-workers are viewing, so the incentive is to over rather than underblock. In other words, apply Hanlon's Razor. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly
Apropos the apropos, the French say: the apple does not fall far away from the tree... ☺ R. -----Messaggio originale----- Da: at-large-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:at-large-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] Per conto di Carlton Samuels Inviato: giovedì 20 settembre 2012 15:52 A: lac-discuss-en@atlarge-lists.icann.org; At-Large Worldwide Oggetto: [At-Large] US PTO Blocks Access to Certain Websites Now then, this is the Patent and Trademark Office of the United States! See the story here: http://keionline.org/node/1548 [FWIW, back in the day, I was one of three contract SEs - me, a Vietnamese woman and a Malaysian woman, both ethnic Chinese - who put in their first full text retrieval system. At the time I worked for a German independent software house. My son, a mechanical engineer fresh out of university, went to work there as an examiner last year. We engineered that system before he was born. They were still using it!] [Apropos, his tenure didn't last too long. Let's say in regard to too many applications, his intuit ran counter too often to that of his immediate supervisor, resulting in the inevitable conflict. This, after I told the boy to shut up and go along with the program! But noooooo. :-)]. - Carlton ============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 *Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* ============================= _______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
participants (5)
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Carlton Samuels -
Evan Leibovitch -
John R. Levine -
Roberto Gaetano -
Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro