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Email #3

To: Jenny
From: Deborah
Date: 25 Feb 1998
Time: 16:36:10

Comments

To: Texas-Pagan-Awareness@server.com
From: tpa@tpao.org
Subject: CyberSitter and Discrimnation

MM, all,

Some of you may have visited the Texas Pagan Awareness Site lately, and seen our report about the conduct of Solid Oak Software, Inc., the makers of "CyberSitter", an Internet Filtering Software.

CyberSitter mailbomed Sara Salls, the Web Mistress of http://www.thewitches.com and http://www.thepagans.com for writing a letter to express her concren over CyberSitter's blocking and censoring practices. In retaliation, she was mailbombed by Solid Oak Software. This incident has garnered the attention of Wired! and CNet. The Wired! article contains a quote from CEO Brian Milburn in which he excuses the company's actions by claiming that Sara Salls could not possibly be a potential customer as she runs witchcraft and pagan web sites.

TPAO is asking that all parents and potential customers surf over to our coverage, read it, and participate in our attempt to enlighten CyberSitter that Pagans can be parents, too, and some of us may *even* be concerned about what our children see on the Internet!

The second situation regarding CyberSitter seems to have come in a direct response to the protests from the Pagan community over this incident. CyberSitter is now blocking all web sites that contain the words "witch", "wiccan", or "pagan". Because of this, it is assumed that every web site with Pagan religious content is blocked and banned by CyberSitter, and as a consequence, blocked by everyone who uses CyberSitter.

Please stop by our front page at http://www.tpao.org and follow the link next to our "Banned by CyberSitter" to Sara Salls coverage of this issue, which includes links to many other organizations who are working on this issue, and her own persepctive on what happened to her.

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