----- ALERT!! LoofBot Launched In article <6ip2p1$dwf@hubris.sevr.yhbt.edu>, Andrew Purella (a.purella@prime.yhbt.edu) wrote: > Leech (leech@aol.com) wrote: >: >: I've been seeing: APPROVED BY LOOFBOT on the bottom of a >: bunch of messages? What the is this supposed to >: mean? I don't ever recall noticing it until just a few > [chomp] > >Hey people! Wake up and get the word out on this -- FAST! Grab a crayon >and write your Senator while you're at it. (I hope you ninnies out there >who voted republican are happy with yourselves!) > [...snip,snip,snip...] > THE BALTIMORE CLARION-HERALD -- Friday, March 31st, 1995 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > (UPA) An ad hoc Senate subcommittee on electronic communications >has approved a plan to clean up profanity on the Information Superhighway. >Spurred in part by debate on an ammendment to the General Telcom Reform >Bill offered by Nebraska Senator J.James Exon (DEM.) and testimony from >several prominent educational and religious groups, the plan directs >the NSA (National Security Agency) to impliment a comprehensive filtering >system of the popular Usenet discussion forums available on the Internet. > Enter LoofBot. > The LoofBot (Lexical Obscenity On-line Filter) is essentially a >scripted computer program developed by technical specialists at the NSA. >It taps into what is known as an NNTP feed, which carries these electronic >messages between systems, and scans for abusive language. > When an obscene word (selected from an FCC profanity list) is >encountered, the LoofBot takes appropriate action. The word is deleted >and replaced with a non-offensive word, more acceptable to Internet's >growing adolescent readership. > "This is not censorship." insists Exon. "The LoofBot doesn't distort >the meaning of a message. Only those smutty words. We're just trying to >bring electronic communications in line with laws covering television >broadcasting. We view these edits as the cyberspace equivilant of bleeps, >like when that Madonna singer was on David Lettermen." > NSA spokesman, Nathan Fromage, anticipates that determined users >will attempt to thwart the program, "probably by switching cases, leaving >extra spaces or asterisks between the letters of an obscene word." >A state-of-the-art fuzzy-logic module has be incorporated into the >algorhythm to prevent this type of evasion. > Indeed, Fromage suspects that the cyber-community, long known for it's >technical jargon, will ultimately develop it's own new list of profanities, >either by using foreign curse words or creating them ex nihilo. > By then, of course, he'll be ready with LoofBot II. Yeah, I heard that ing rumor too. Don't believe it! It's a crock of . The guy who wrote that has his head up his . Have you *ever* seen a journalist who knew UseNet from a Tennis Net? How the do they plan to do it? They'd have to swift through every ing message in UseNet, parse out the profanity, insert inoffensive language, and then repost it. Even if they *could*, there's gotta be a million ways to it up. If those pinheads think they can dictate my language, they can just kiss my !! > and write your Senator while you're at it. (I hope you ninnies out > there who voted republican are happy with yourselves!) BTW, Exon is a *Democrat*, you hole!! Dave Furstenau df@unlinfo.unl.edu ------------------------------- Approved by: LOOFBOT (04/01/95) -------------------------------