March 17, 2000
Software Injunction Issued
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OSTON -- A federal judge Friday ordered a halt to the distribution of a computer program that allows children to bypass software designed to keep them away from Internet pornography.
Microsystems Software Inc. of Framingham, which sells the widely used "Cyber Patrol" filtering software, sued two computer experts who distributed the bypassing software via the Internet. The software, called "cphack," also discloses a list of sites that are blocked by the Cyber Patrol program.
U.S. District Judge Edward F. Harrington ordered Matthew Skala, a self-described cryptography buff who attends the University of Victoria in British Columbia, and Eddy L.O. Jansson, believed to be living in Sweden, to stop spreading the "cphack" program.
The judge also blocked distribution of the "cphack" software by anyone working with them.
Microsystems attorney Irwin Schwartz said the judge's order extended to any "mirror" Web sites, where the program may have been copied and made available. Another hearing is set for March 27 on the case.
Skala and Jansson were not represented at Friday's hearing, and they did not immediately return e-mails seeking comment.
Microsystems has said in its legal filings it would suffer "irreparable harm" from the publication of the bypassing software, which it said sought to destroy the market for its product by rendering it ineffective.
"The practical effect is that ... children may bypass their parents' efforts to screen out inappropriate materials on the Internet," according to the filing made this week.
Free speech advocates criticized the company's move to block distribution of the software.
Peter Junger, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and an advocate of free speech on the Internet, said it "looks like a rather horrifying challenge to people's right to write software" and to "reverse-engineer" software, which means figure out how it works.
"The idea that one can prevent reverse-engineering of software and publishing the results of that reverse-engineering strikes me as a very dangerous restriction on free speech," he said before the judge's ruling.
Chris Hansen, a senior lawyer with the national office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said there might be debate about whether distributing the bypass software was legal, but that the ACLU agreed with at least one role of the software -- publicizing the list of blocked sites.
"Parents who want to install these products ought to be able to do so," he said, adding, "How can you, as a parent, make an intelligent decision (on filtering software)if the product won't tell you what they're blocking?"
