RE: Open Source Web Content/URL Filter

["Murda Mcloud" <murdamcloud () bigpond com>]

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com]
> > On Behalf Of Razi Shaban
> > Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 7:17 AM
> > To: vaporad () live com
> > Cc: security-basics () securityfocus com
> > Subject: Re: Open Source Web Content/URL Filter
> >
> > On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 7:00 PM,  <vaporad () live com> wrote:
> > > My company is looking into open source alternatives to our Websense
> > application.  The application would need to be AD aware and have
> > transparent authentication.  Does anyone have any experience with a open
> > source web content/url filters?
> > > Thanks in advance
> >
> > Isn't that kinda oxymoronical? You want a open source, public way to
> > censor material?
> >
> > If you're the kinda person who sees the rationale behind open source,
> > it surprises me that you want to filter content.
> >
> > --
> > Razi Shaban

I don't quite see the logic of saying that open source and content filters
are mutually exclusive or are contradictory to each other. If that were the
case then the great guys who came up with Dan's Guardian couldn't have made
it in the first place. People/companies/orgs filter content for a variety of
reasons-one of them being security. 
I suppose that you could call filtering a form of censorship, at some level.
And I am guilty of that(I won't let my 11yr old play GTA or ultra violent
games and filter web content at home via smoothwall) but I still see the
great benefits of open source software and love the ethos behind much of it.