[governance] USPTO blocks web access to "Political/Activist Groups" including KEI, ACLU, EFF, Public Citizen, Redstate, DailyKos

Thu Sep 20 11:58:30 EDT 2012

Hi All,

I would agree with the observation of Alejandro. That's indeed the case in my organisation (TCS) as well  where in the standard filters at times block the genuine sites. The process is then simple, inform the email I'd given in the error message with a business case for opening it. 

Infact my observation is that most of the people in corporate world take it on as is basis and don't report back.

Regards
Anupam Agrawal

On 20-Sep-2012, at 7:39 PM, "Dr. Alejandro Pisanty Baruch" <apisan at unam.mx> wrote:

> Sala,
> 
> any knowledge of corporate IT will tell you that this is a pretty standard filter used in private as well as public offices. Usually installed by third parties who set up the networks or even run them, or accessed by IT at third-party sites. As Jamie Love writes as well, the filter was removed upon request. It is the same type of filter that would have caused some hotel reservation sites to be blocked "for sexual content."
> 
> Clues... they used to be more widely available.
> 
> Alejandro Pisanty
> 
>  
> ! !! !!! !!!!
> NEW PHONE NUMBER - NUEVO NÚMERO DE TELÉFONO
>  
> 
> +52-1-5541444475 FROM ABROAD
> 
> +525541444475 DESDE MÉXICO
> 
> SMS +525541444475 
>      Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
> UNAM, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico
> 
> Blog: http://pisanty.blogspot.com
> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pisanty
> Unete al grupo UNAM en LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/22285/4A106C0C8614
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/apisanty
> ---->> Unete a ISOC Mexico, http://www.isoc.org
> .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 
> 
> Desde: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] en nombre de Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro [salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com]
> Enviado el: jueves, 20 de septiembre de 2012 05:02
> Hasta: governance at lists.igcaucus.org; Riaz K Tayob
> Asunto: Re: [governance] USPTO blocks web access to "Political/Activist Groups" including KEI, ACLU, EFF, Public Citizen, Redstate, DailyKos
> 
> If what is reported is legitimate, we are in for some troubling times ahead of us. :( :(:(
> 
> Sala
> 
> On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob at gmail.com> wrote:
> USPTO blocks web access to "Political/Activist Groups" including KEI, ACLU, EFF, Public Citizen, Redstate, DailyKos
> 
> View
> What links here
> Submitted by James Love on 18. September 2012 - 12:32
> Update: At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block "political activist" sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.
> Today I was visiting the USPTO, for a high level meeting on global negotiations on intellectual property and access to medicine. The meeting was held in the Stockholm Room, on the 2nd floor of the USPTO library, at the main USPTO building at 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA. The USPTO also uses these meeting rooms for its Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA). The USPTO offers free Wifi for the visitors. But when I tried to login to http://keionline.org, I received this message:
> 
> Access Denied (content_filter_denied)
> Your request was denied because this URL contains content that is categorized as: "Political/Activist Groups" which is blocked by USPTO policy. If you believe the categorization is inaccurate, please contact the USPTO Service Desk and request a manual review of the URL.
> 
> For assistance, contact USPTO OCIO IT Service Desk. (io-proxy4)
> 
> We checked and found that the USPTO blocks access to a number of groups that have followed SOPA and the TPP intellectual property negotiations, particularly those critical of the USPTO positions on intellectual property issues. Among the NGOs that were blocked were aclu.org, cdt.org, citizen.org, eff.org, healthgap.org,  keionline.org and publicknowledge.org. Among the sites NOT BLOCKED were the industry lobby groups BSA, MPPA, RIIA, and PhRMA.
> 
> The USPTO also selectively blocks certain blogs and new sites, including, for example, dailykos.coms, firedoglake.com, redstate.org, rushlimbaugh.com and talkingpointsmemo.com.,
> 
> Here are examples of what the USPTO blocks, and does not block.
> 
> Blocked NGOs	aclu.org
> cdt.org
> citizen.org
> eff.org
> healthgap.org
> keionline.org
> publicknowledge.org
> NGOs that are NOT blocked	bsa.org
> creativecommons.org
> iipa.com
> iipi.org
> ipi.org
> mpaa.org
> PhRMA.org
> pubpat.org
> RIIA.Org
> stockholm-network.org
> Blocked Blogs and news outlets	dailykos.coms
> firedoglake.com
> redstate.org
> rushlimbaugh.com
> talkingpointsmemo.com
> Blogs and new outlets that are NOT blocked	71patent.blogspot.com
> aljazeera.com
> boingboing.net
> dailycaller.com
> democracynow.org
> drudgereport.com
> groklaw.net
> huffingtonpost.com
> ip-watch.org
> itcblog.com
> lessig.org
> michaelgeist.ca
> nationalreview.com
> spicyipindia.blogspot.com
> techdirt.com
> washingtonmonthly.com
> James Love's blog
> Add new comment
> Printer-friendly version
> Send by email
> Cause of foul up
> 
> Submitted by Anonymous dude or dudess on 19. September 2012 - 12:02.
> 'Ex-Patent Examiner here. If this was anything other than a contractor foul-up, I'll eat my hat. There were a dozen instances where I'd need to call the help desk to access a website that would enable me to do my job.' If true, this means no one at USPTO tried to access those sites and asked for the filter to be removed since it was implemented.
> 
> reply
> 
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>      governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> To be removed from the list, visit:
>      http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
> 
> For all other list information and functions, see:
>      http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
> To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
>      http://www.igcaucus.org/
> 
> Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
> P.O. Box 17862
> Suva
> Fiji
> 
> Twitter: @SalanietaT
> Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
> Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
> 
>  
> 
> 
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> To be removed from the list, visit:
>     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
> 
> For all other list information and functions, see:
>     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
> To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
>     http://www.igcaucus.org/
> 
> Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20120920/d8e459a0/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t