CYBERsitter Correspondence Round 2

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The MoJo Wire:

To: bmilburn@solidoak.com
From: Jennifer Hattam
Subject: CYBERsitter blocking policy question
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997

Mr. Milburn,

It has been reported to The MoJo Wire that CYBERsitter is currently blocking The Ethical Spectacle (http://www.spectacle.org). Please let me know if this is correct, and if so, which part of your policy they violated (i.e. why are they being blocked?).

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Jennifer Hattam
MoJo Wire Fellow

Solid Oak’s response:

From: terminator@solidoak.com (The Terminator)
To: Jennifer Hattam
Organization: Solid Oak Software, Inc.
Subject: Re: CYBERsitter blocking policy question
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997

Dear Sender,

Unfortunately, we do not accept unsolicited e-mail that is intended to be harassing, is politically motivated, or in any way offensive to the employees at Solid Oak Software.

Therefor[sic], we will appreciate your cooperation in not contacting this company again regarding these issues.

What we can tell you is that CYBERsitter has absolutely no "hidden political agenda", regardless of what our critics might try to claim. The site in question is blocked by CYBERsitter simply because it publishes or maintains links to other sites that publ[sic]

When a customer purchases our product, they have every right to expect and demand that reasonable efforts be expended on our part to insure that once CYBERsitter is installed, its operation be as secure as possible.

Any site that publishes information that lessens the value of our product to our customers, or makes an overt effort to subvert parental rights to supervise and control the on-line activities of their minor children, will be blocked.

Thank-you

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No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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