FC: Interscan blocks musician's email due to use of "whore"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[I've never compiled statistics, but in my experience many Politech 
messages bounce because of silly spamfilters (when we're talking about 
spam), virusfilters (when we're talking about viruses), and pornfilters 
(when we're talking about pornography). Including all those terms in this 
message may trigger them all. :) --Declan]

---

From: "Thomas Leavitt" <thomasleavitt () hotmail com>
To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
Subject: Interscan blocks musician's email due to use of "whore"
Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2003 23:56:05 -0700
Organization: B40

The name of Lisa's record company is Kitchen Whore records.

I find it amusing, and a little scary, that the most recent instances that
I've encountered of email filters blocking mail inappropriately  have been
due to obscenities (I emailed you about the other one), and not over
enthusiastic spam filters. Are language police slipping in under the guise
of vigilance against spam and anti-virii software? (apparently so) What has
been your experience with the politech list?

To me, this is just another example of how the integrity and reliability of
the email system is being compromised by anti-spam filters and other
techniques that inappropriately evaluate the content of email before
deciding on whether or not to deliver it. What reasonable person would
anticipate that "whore" is a dirty word whose presence will prevent delivery
of their message to the intended recipient? And you know that the only
people really affected by this are going to be non-spammers ... the spammer
are going to just put "Wh0re" or "Wh*re" or Wh@re in their subject lines and
content. Why should Lisa have to "abbreviate" her company name to reach
opt-in subscribers, because somewhere, someone decided that "whore" was a
bad word that might indicate either spam or somehow induce legal liability?

I wonder how many politech readers aren't going to get this email, because
they use Interscan? Or how many might not get another email, because it
contains "f*ck" in it? I wonder how many people will never see her web site,
or get access to it blocked, as a result.

I did a search in Google. Chuck0 reported this problem back in 1999 (see:
http://internet.ggu.edu/university_library/if/discuss_wrong.html)... in that
case, it apparently produced the following message, in response to a quote
from the journals of Wilhelm Reich. Equally absurd.

******Message from InterScan E-Mail VirusWall NT******

The following mail was blocked by InterScan eManager Content Management.
Profile: Sexual Discrimination
Action: Quarantine

Sender, your message has been found to contain offensive material and
has been quarantined pending further investigation.

******************* End of message *******************

This is just plain wrong.

Regards,
Thomas Leavitt

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lisa Dewey" <lucydewey () yahoo com>
To: <lisa () lisadewey com>
Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2003 10:52 PM
Subject: June 15th show canceled and re-scheduled


> Hi Everyone!
>
> Interscan blocked my last email because of the word Wh__e.  You know,
> the name of my record company.  So until I figure out how to get past
> that one, I will be abbreviating the name.  Okay, thanks.
> Here is the email that got blocked.
>
> The LISA DEWEY & THE LOTUS LIFE with Frankie Perez show at The Blank
> Club on Sunday June 15th has been CANCELED.  Sorry!  We have
> re-scheduled a show at The Blank Club on Saturday July 26th. LISA DEWEY
> & THE LOTUS LIFE will be headlining with Andalusia and a special guest
> opening.  This show will benefit Kwhore Records.   Kwhore Records will
> be releasing 3 CD's before the end of the year.  Kelsi Arnold
> "Dulcinea", Bethany Curve, and LISA DEWEY & THE LOTUS LIFE.
> I will email the details about the benefit soon.
>
> Thank you to all of you who came out to the San Jose Gay Pride show
> yesterday.
> We had a blast!
>
> Love,
> Dewey
>
> Here are all of our upcoming shows:
>
> Thursday June 19
> The Stork Club
> Oakland, CA
> LISA DEWEY & The Lotus Life with Andi Camp & Moonshine Matinee
> 9pm
>
> Saturday June 21
> The Mediterranean Club
> Aptos, CA
> LISA DEWEY & The Lotus Life
> 9pm
>
> Saturday July 26
> The Blank Club (formerly Plant 51, Fuel 44), San Jose
> LISA DEWEY & The Lotus Life with Andlausia plus a special guest.
> A Benefit for Kwhore Records
> 9pm
> 44 S. Almaden Avenue
> Downtown San Jose
> http://www.theblankclub.com
> (408) 971-8511
>
> Sept. 19-28 West Coast Tour
> TBA
>
> http://www.lisadewey.com
> http://www.kitchenwhore.com
>
>
>
>




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