The majority of US online marketers are responding to consumers privacy concerns.

This is according to a new report from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

The report indicates that 96 percent of online marketers say they provide their customers with an option to opt-out of future email offers.

Yeah ... And if you ask most foxes, they will tell you that if asked properly Foxes don't raid chicken coops.

Wired News - Cuba Bans PC Sales to Public.

The Cuban government has quietly banned the sale of computers and computer accessories to the public, except in cases where the items are "indispensable" and the purchase is authorized by the Ministry of Internal Commerce.

News of the ban was first reported by CubaNet, an anti-Castro site based in Miami. According to the organization's correspondent in Havana, the merchandise -- which had been sold freely in the capital since mid-2001-- was yanked off store shelves in January.

The computer departments of the retail stores were divided into two zones: a well-stocked area for government buyers, and a smaller area where the public could buy diskettes, CDs and other such items. A store employee told the correspondent she was forbidden from discussing the move, which was also referred to briefly in a newsletter published by the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - Cuba Bans PC Sales, Greece Bans Video Games.

CBS News | Smut At The Library.

A new front in a war between free-speech advocates and Congress over pornography on the Internet opens on Monday with a courtroom battle over how far the government can go to make libraries equip computers with software that blocks pornographic Web sites.

The Children's Internet Protection Act, the U.S. government's third attempt to control online smut, seeks to prevent children from accessing objectionable Internet material by requiring libraries to put blocking software on computers or lose federal funds that subsidize Internet access.

"The question here - and it's likely one that will have to be decided ultimately by the U.S. Supreme Court - is whether the First Amendment permits the government to withhold subsidies to libraries that don't block access to pornographic sites," says CBSNews.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "To the extent this law is not as broad as its predecessors, and to the extent it focuses on government funding and not on direct limitations of school and libraries, it has a better chance of being upheld."

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Washington-based group People for the American Way and a coalition of libraries, library patrons and Web site operators fear the law would undermine the right to free speech enshrined in the First Amendment.

Some view the law as an attempt by social conservatives in Congress to use the pornography issue as an excuse for denying public access to Web sites operated by their ideological opponents, including gay and abortion rights advocates.

"Ultimately, the government is trying to dictate what adults can access on the Internet," said ACLU attorney Ann Beeson.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - Trial Begins Over Library Censorship.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - Open Source's Role in Lowering Export Restrictions.

Bozo points to this article (PDF) "from the latest issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society by Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau. It mentions the role of Open Source software in the U.S. government's backing off on export restrictions on cryptography.[ ... ]"

Slashdot | 1024-bit RSA keys In Danger Of Compromise?

New York Times - free registration required Law Limiting Internet in Libraries Challenged.

This morning in a Philadelphia courtroom, a coalition of libraries, Web sites and library patrons will begin nine days of hearings in which they will ask three federal judges to help decide a seemingly simple question: What is a library for?

They argue that a law passed by Congress in December 2000 requiring schools and libraries to use Internet filtering software changes the nature of libraries from being places that provide information to places that unconstitutionally restrict it.

The law that the librarians and their allies are trying to overturn, the Children's Internet Protection Act, denies federal financing and technology discounts via the federal e-Rate program to schools and public libraries if they do not install a "technology protection measure" like filters to block access to Web sites deemed harmful to minors.

The coalition of plaintiffs includes the American Library Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and Jeffrey L. Pollock, a Republican Congressional candidate who favored mandatory filtering until he discovered that his own campaign's Web site was blocked by one of the most popular filtering programs.

They call the law a case of good intentions leading to a bad result, hamstringing the computers that are, for many people, the sole link to the Internet. They argue that the law pre-empts community control over libraries and the judgment of local librarians. They also point to the failings of the software, which can let objectionable material through and block constitutionally protected sites. The law constitutes "classic prior restraint on speech," said Ann Beeson, staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Slashdot | Cat Recognition Algorithms?

quantumpicture.com - Flo Control. This is Flo. Her job is testing our image recognition algorithms, although she might not be aware of this. She goes in and out of the house through a cat door