Return-path: Date: Fri, 06 Dec 1996 23:05:11 -0500 From: Joe Hayes Subject: letter To: haseltbt@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu Reply-to: jhayes@media3.net Organization: Media3 Technologies To: Administrative Contact Media3. Our company publishes a product called CYBERsitter, an Internet content filtering product designed to keep children away from areas of questionable content. One of your subscribers, Bennett Haselton (peacefire.org) has made it his mission in life to defame our product as he appearantly has a problem with parents wishing to filter their childrens access to the internet. He has routinely published names of sites we block and has even gone as far as complaining to the webmasters of blocked sites in order to cause us problems. Because we do not publish our site list in readable format, we have legitimate concerns that he may have illegally reverse engineered portions of the program to further his crusade. Because of his extreme immaturity and his relative zeal with regards to this issue, we believe he will at some point, step over the bounds of legality (if he hasn't already) and publish portions of legally copyrighted material, seriously compromising the effectiveness of our product, causing significant damages, and necessatite actions on our part to rectify the damage caused. Mr. Haselton seems to have more than a casual knowledge of the inner workings of CYBERsitter. Our main concern is that children will learn of methods of disable or hack CYBERsitter from his efforts. In light of that, we have referred this matter to our attorneys and are going to add all IP addresses assigned to MEDIA3 to our blocking list. We will also block all newsgroups he posts anything regarding our product in. We realize this is an extreme measure and regret that our customers will no longer have access to any sites serviced by MEDIA3. I am not sure if any of our current customers are MEDIA3 subscribers, but as they will no longer be able to access their e-mail and such, we will offer any affected customers complete refunds. Unfortunately, this young man is quite resourceful, and we believe that simply blocking his IP address will not be sufficient. He can easily get it changed, and we do not wish to devote any further time into the damage he is causing than necessary. We have over 900,000 licensed users and the potential for damage is extreme. Sincerely, Brian Milburn President Solid Oak Software, Inc. ____________________________________________ Brian Milburn Solid Oak Software,Inc. - Santa Barbara, CA bmilburn@solidoak.com - CIS: 74774,551 http://www.solidoak.com - CIS: "GO SOLIDOAK"