[Note: the header and signature of this e-mail, but not the actual content, have
been edited to protect the anonymity of the sender   --Bennett]

From: [name deleted   --Bennett]
To: bmilburn@solidoak.com

Mr.Milburn,

                 You have stated over and over again that your software is for use by parents. And that individuals other
than parents, should not be involving themselves in the fight against your just above legal censoring techniques. 

I, myself am a parent. I have two children who love to surf the Internet, and while I seek to protect them from
inappropriate material, I certainly would not want someone else making the decisions on what my children should
or should not view for me.  Which is exactly what your software does. It does not allow the parents to make the
choices about what their children access, that list is already predefined within the software and to top it all off, you
encrypt the list so that the parents cannot even view it. This I find completely preposterous. That would be like the
video clerk telling me I could only rent G rated movies, because I have children under the age of thirteen in my
household. Therefore, I am not entitled to rent a PG-13 movie or above.  The PG stands for parental guidance.
Which means, that if I determine that my child is mature enough to view the movie, he may. It does not mean that
anyone under the age of thirteen is banned from seeing it.

In essence, this is what you have done with your software. You have taken the "parental guidance" out of it. A
parent is not allowed to determine which sites on your list are or are not appropriate as they are not allowed to
view the list that your software operates from.

I, for one, am not opposed to my children learning about diversity, yet you have blocked The National
Organization for Women, who's key issues include Racial and Ethnic Diversity as well as issues concerning
Violence Against Women, which unfortunately in their younger days my children had to deal with firsthand. If it
were not for Organizations like N.O.W. many women would not be able to find the resources the need to escape
abusive relationships, thus allowing the children to suffer further. 

You have also banned The Human Awareness Institute which teaches individuals to prosper in healthier, happier,
more emotionally balanced relationships. This is something I WANT my children to learn. After all, what is the
alternative? For them to learn to wither in unhealthy, unhappy, emotionally leeching, abusive relationships? 

We live in an area that is extremely diverse and has a large gay population. Although, some homophobia still
exists in the community, it is starting to be dispelled by the amount of information available in cyberspace about
the gay/lesbian community.  Not so if you are using CYBERsitter however. I think that based upon the
extraordinarily large number of gay/lesbian sites that you have banned, we can see where the main homophobia
exists. (Looked in a mirror lately, Mr. Millburn?) 

Until recently, you had also blocked a large number of wiccan/pagan sites as well because they obviously did not
subscribe to your own Christian values not because they were in violation in any way of your list of criteria for
blocked sites. By doing this, if I were using your software, you would have infringed upon my right as a parent to
teach my children about their religion, as I would not have been able to access many valuable wiccan/pagan sites.

I truly think that you need to re-evaluate your motives in distributing this product. If the product is not based upon
your own agendas but merely to help parents in protecting their children, then you need to revamp your product so
that it allows parents to decide what is appropriate for the children. By decoding your banned lists and making your
product more "parent-friendly".

It is not groups like Peacefire that are causing you to lose revenue. It is your own product. Organizations like
Peacefire and many other individuals and organizations are merely bringing attention to faults which already exist
within your product. Faults that the consumer would discover for themselves once they purchased it. If I were you,
I would take the complaints you get to heart and use them to make your product better, rather than trying to shut
down every single site that airs a complaint about your company's software. 

I, for one fully intend to make it known how your software operates. I have many friends on many domains who are
willing to help me inform consumers about your product. If you feel it necessary to track us down, and block each
and every one of us, then I wish you luck in your endeavors. But it might make it necessary to add the word
CYBERsitter to your list of banned words, and just what would that do to your business?

Sincerely,

[name deleted  -Bennett]