Symantec's Norton Internet Security is anti-gun?!
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 
From: "GUNESQ@OPTONLINE.NET" <gunesq@optonline.net>
Subject: Anti-Gun Symantec


World Headquarters
Symantec Corporation
20330 Stevens Creek Blvd. Cupertino, CA 95014
    tel +1 408 517 8000 
    www.symantec.com 

Dear Sir / Madame:

I have recently purchased and installed on my home computer your product – “Internet Security”, which includes firewall with parental controls allowing to block unwanted websites, containing pornography, violence, and other material inappropriate for children. This program also periodically downloads from your firm an updated list of blocked web sites. 

As probably most of the users, I installed it and used it for a while in it’s ‘default’ configuration. It took me a while before I’ve got to the list of the blocked categories of websites and examined it. Even then, it was not be immediately obvious to me what the “weapons” category means. Here is the an incomplete list of the web sites blocked under this category:

http://www.keepandbeararms.com – a web site with political news devoted to right to keep and bear arms;
http://www.concealcarry.org/ Concealed Carry of Illinois, Inc.
http://www.wagc.com/ Women against gun control
http://nra.org/ NRA
http://www.nraila.org/ -- NRA’s institute for legislative action
http://www.saf.org/ Second Amendment Foundation
http://www.guntruths.com/
http://www.tsra.com/LottPage.htm Prof. John Lott’s page.
http://www.gunowners.org/ -- Gun Owners of America
http://gunsafe.org/ We are the "Quiet Majority" of Connecticut firearms owners
http://www.jpfo.org/links.htm Jews for preservation of firearm ownership.
http://www.nfa.ca/ -- National Firearms Assoc. (Canada)
http://www.tennesseefirearms.com/
http://www.mcrgo.org/ Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners
http://www.goal.org/ Gun owners action league
http://www.io.com/~velte/pt.htm Peaceable Texans for Firearms Rights
http://www.isra.org/ Illinois state rifle assoc.
http://www.mothersarms.org Mother’s Arms
http://www.gunssavelife.com/
http://www.gunownersca.com/
http://www.gosc.org/ Gun owners of S. Carolina
http://www.blackmanwithagun.net/
http://www.kc3.com/ -- Kentucky coalition to carry concealed.
http://www.ccrkba.org/ Citizens committee Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
http://www.guncite.com – facts and quotes about gun control.
http://firearmsrights.com/
http://www.womenshooters.com
http://licgweb.dos.state.fl.us/weapons/index.html : FL Department of State’s website with info about concealed carry statues.
http://www.bfpe.state.ct.us -- CT state board of firearm permit examiners.

Despite being characterized as “weapons”, most of the websites do not contain any depiction or discussion of any firearms, and fully devoted to politics of Second Amendment, right of the citizen to self-defense, study of crime statistics, etc., and some of them are actually (the last two in the list above) the official web sites of state agencies and law enforcement!

The Second Amendment Foundation is devoted to the preservation of the Second Amendment, as well as Jews for Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Among the blocked is the web site of Prof. John Lott Jr., the author of scientific research on the influence of lawful firearms ownership on crime rates, the author of the books

More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws 
 (Studies in Law and Economics (Chicago, Ill.).)

The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong.

Even though these websites have little to do with “weapons”, I find existence of this category strange. Firearms are just tools made by good guys for good guys for self-defense, and their ownership is protected by U.S. Constitution, and a right thing to do is to educate children on their safe usage, not to block information about them.

Of course, I perfectly understand that it is enough to find the list of the blocked subjects and uncheck the “weapons”, but it is also pretty clear that most of the parents will install the program without ever getting to that list, even less to the bottom of it where the “weapons” category is located, and even if they do, no sane person would assume that it refers to conservative political websites having no guns depicted on them and dedicated to the preservation of the U.S. Constitution. So, by creating this category and putting these websites into it you silently block access to those political views for children of many unsuspecting parents.

Just out of curiosity I tried some of the anti-gun websites. Here are the results:

Allowed:

http://www.onemillionmoms.com/ -- Million moms march
http://128.121.250.41/ -- Brady campaign to prevent Gun Violence.
http://www.bradycenter.org/ -- same
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zj5j-gttl/guns.htm - A Case for Gun Control
http://www.gunfree.org/ - Coalition to stop gun violence
http://www.nyagv.org/ -- The mission of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence
http://www.paxusa.org/ - Real solutions to Gun violence
http://www.mppgv.org/ - The Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence
http://www.wagv.org/ Women Against Gun Violence
http://www.ncgv.org/ N. Carolinians against gun violence
http://www.ipgv.org/ - Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence
http://www.ocagv.org/ Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence
http://www.jointogether.org/home/
http://www.silentmarch.org/
http://www.gunfree.org/
http://www.ichv.org/ -- Illinois council against handgun violence
http://www.the-indigestible.com/specials/gcn/ -- Gun control Now
http://www.ceasefirenj.org/
http://mothersagainstguns.org/
http://www.doctorsagainsthandguninjury.org/
http://www.ajcongress.org/ptchoice.htm
http://www.handgunfree.org/HFAMain/

Anti-gun sites blocked: 

http://www.vpc.org/ -- Violence policy center.
http://www.americansforgunsafety.com

-- the only 2 I was able to find!

Obviously, this pattern is not a result of randomly blocking all websites related to the subject of gun control. This could only be achieved as a result of a conscious effort to block conservative websites, dedicated to the protection of the Constitution, while not blocking the liberal ones. Among the sites you did not block are the websites of organizations such as former “Handgun control Inc”, now the “Brady Campaign etc.” dedicated to banning guns, and while the can not do it legally – by repealing the Second Amendment – they are trying to do it by putting a pressure on U.S. legislature to pass anti-constitutional laws, while ignoring the Constitution. This is a very interesting choice for web sites available for children.

I am not sure if this is a screw-up by some low-level clerk, or an official policy of the Symantec corporation. Until this problem is resolved, I will refrain from purchasing any of your products, including paying for any of the virus definition updates – I will switch to other programs. 

I will post this letter on my website http://vkus.freeyellow.com in the Letters section. This website is also not a “weapons” website, it is a conservative political website dedicated to the right of the people to self-protection. If you ever choose to send me a reply, I promise to post it in the unchanged form on the same website. I will distribute this letter to pro-gun web sites, newsgroups and mailing lists.

Sincerely,

Vladimir Kushnir, Ph.D.

07/21/2003

N.B.  The webmaster went to the Symantec web site to see what they have to say about "Internet Security."  Couldn't find a program with that name.  However http://enterprisesecurity.symantec.com/products/products.cfm?ProductID=60 is the url for their "Symantec Web Security."  Don't know if that's the program Dr. Kushnir was using, but here's a portion of Symantec's description [otherwise known as "bureaucratic gobbly gook": 

Symantec Web Security is tightly integrated antivirus and content filtering solution. Symantec researches, develops, integrates, and supports its own international URL filtering lists as well as a variety of market-leading protection technologies. Symantec's NAVEX™ modular scanning engine detects new virus classes without having to uninstall existing software, redeploys new software, or reboots the system. Symantec Striker™, Bloodhound™, and LiveUpdate™ provide real-time, multilevel, and uninterrupted protection against malicious code attacks. Plus, Symantec's patented, multilingual Dynamic Document Review™ content-analysis technology analyzes word relationships to block access to inappropriate web content.

Does any reader understand what they're trying to say?   What is Symantec's definition of "inappropriate?"  

Aha!  Found it!  It's actually "Norton Internet Security."  I'll wager ol' Peter Norton is not pleased with the image Symantec has given him as the cut rate program guru.  Whoops!  It is a $100 program. One of the several features of NIS 2003 is:  

Norton™ Parental Control
NEW! Blocks access to newsgroups, as well as Web sites that are unsuitable for your children.

"Unsuitable" ?  Newsgroups?  Hey! That's where all the really important details are found. The details may be correct or they may even be incorrect, but they're certainly important.

Back in the old DOS days Peter Norton's Utilities were "had to have" programs.  Today I avoid anything to do with Symantec.   Diskeeper, Zone Alarm, eTrust EZ Antivirus together with PestPatrol and Spybot keep my 'puter clean and running smoothly.