From: Fantome@netdepot.com (le Fantome de l'Opera)
To: bmilburn@solidoak.com
Organization: l'Opera de Paris

[Preface: The below letter was sent to Brian Milburn
(bmilburn@solidoak.com) after reading several articles and emails
hosted on and linked from Peacefire (http://www.peacefire.org), a
non-profit teen organization dedicated to free speech issues for
"minors", particularly with respect to the Internet. Previous writers
to Solid Oak about this topic have received responses such as "GO
AWAY", "GET LOST", and a few things which one would expect to find in
alt.flame ... from someone new to flaming. This is being sent to PC
Magazine specifically because CyberSitter was recently awarded an
Editor's Choice award. It is my opinion that PC Magazine should inform
parents (that is, potential customers of the reviewed products) of the
selection criteria for blocked sites in this sort of product.
CyberSitter has a definite moral, political, and religious agenda,
when you look closer. Note: this full letter, including the preface,
is being forwarded to Bennett Haselton (bennett@peacefire.org) for
inclusion in the Peacefire archives. Any response received from Mr.
Milburn will be forwarded to both PC Magazine and Bennett Haselton.]

Mr. Milburn,

As a computer professional who recommends software to friends, family,
colleagues, and client companies, I have been asked about various
blocking software programs. Although I do not use these programs
myself, I attempt to learn as much about them as I can in order to
provide an adequate recommendation.

However, I have recently read articles about your company and your
software, as well as electronic mail which appears to have been sent
from your company, which guarantees that I will never recommend your
blocking software, and I will actively *discourage* contacts from ever
using any software written by Solid Oak.

This is not just because of Solid Oak's right-wing-oriented agenda in
writing its blocking software [which I oppose vehemently], or because
of its vague "standards".

No, it is because of the unprofessional attitude that you and your
employees have displayed in your emails from your company. "GET LOST",
indeed. It is that you have permitted your vague standards to become
personal vendettas. If you have that little respect for anyone who has
legitimate concerns about your software and the standards involved in
producing your software, you certainly cannot have respect for family,
friends, or clients of mine.

In closing, I ask you to think about the group you claim to be
empowering. If parents cannot easily override and remove selections
which Solid Oak has banned, then are you empowering them, or are you
telling them that you know better how to raise their children than
they do?

I look forward to hearing from you. Please don't embarrass yourself in
any response, as I will be forwarding copies both this message and any
response you provide to Ziff-Davis.

Sincerely,
Austin Ziegler
http://www.netdepot.com/~fantome/ | le Fantôme de l'Opéra, developer
fantome at netdepot dot com       | poet, asg-x, writer, web-page design

# "The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure
thought-stuff. He builds castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion
of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to
polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing such grand conceptual
structures." -- Fred Brooks #