FC: Judge invites Mattel to shut down mirror sites

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Judge Harrington's order is at:
http://www.politechbot.com/cyberpatrol/final-injunction.html

*********

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35244,00.html

   Mattel Can Go After Mirrors
   by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)
   12:55 p.m. Mar. 28, 2000 PST

   A federal judge in Boston has invited Mattel to start contempt of
   court proceedings to shut down mirror sites in a suit over its
   Cyberpatrol filtering software.

   U.S. District Judge Edward Harrington's order released Tuesday
   afternoon says anyone who is acting in "concert" with the authors of a
   program that reveals Cyberpatrol's secret blacklist must take down
   their Web sites or face the consequences.

   During a hearing on Monday, a Mattel attorney said that would apply to
   anyone who mirrors the "cphack" utility. "They should be afraid of
   being hauled into court on contempt proceedings," Irwin Schwartz said.

   In his three-page order, Harrington wrote that it was a good thing
   that parents could block the Web sites of "the purveyors of
   pornography and the merchants of death and violence." In addition to
   descrambling Cyberpatrol's blacklist, cphack reveals the password that
   parents have set -- and users can then bypass the ban on verboten Web
   sites and newsgroups.

   [...] 

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