Don Cameron wrote: > Yet it may be this filter is enabling your ability to access information if > by it's existence you have access at all. Comments deriding Internet filters > sometimes fail to consider why filters are installed. If for censorship, > then I agree; the use of censorship filters may well restrict and undermine > legitimate attempts to access information. However if a filter is installed > for bandwidth management; to allow the highest number of users the most > benefit from a physically finite resource then the filter becomes an enabler > to the greatest number (albeit some high-bandwidth technologies like > streaming video may be restricted). Many Internet 'filters' are in fact > caching proxy servers designed to provide connectivity to more people than > is otherwise possible on a given level of bandwidth. These filters are > designed to share a limited resource in an equitable manner. > Forgive me, but in the original context of the message, the context was censorship of video, etc. Your point on caching proxy servers is well made, but they are called caching proxy servers - not filters. Caching proxy servers are poor solutions to a major problem which is increasing: Demand for content would exceed and caching proxy server, we all know that.
Next, the intent of a technology has nothing to do with it's impact. If a caching proxy server cannot sustain the amount of content required, then either you increase the capability of the server or you get more bandwidth. Anything which restricts access in this way is de facto censorship, be it implicitly democratic or not. If I paint your windows black and say that I did so so you wouldn't get melanoma, have I done you a disservice? Have I censored your view? If you say that I have, then I have. If, however, you live in fear of melanoma - you will thank me, perhaps pay me, and cower in the dark worried about little places where light leaks in. Proxy Cache Servers were decent solutions at one point. They still are in areas where bandwidth may be an issue, but that is less relevant considering the amount of dynamically created content on the web. Caching pages only works for pages that are not dynamic. Blogs, Wikis and Content Management Systems worth their way in silicon don't cache very well. The death of Frontpage should have marked the death of Proxy Cache Servers. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo "The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine." - Nikola Tesla _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
