[At-Large] [lac-discuss-en] US PTO Blocks Access to Certain Websites

Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com
Thu Sep 20 21:30:31 UTC 2012


Actually, if we look at the response that James Love got when he was
blocked, it says that he was blocked according to the US PTO Policy. I
would also love to see the Policy. The fact that they were blocked because
of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations is very very very
telling.

Yes, they may have lifted it - but the question is WHY DID THEY DO IT in
the first place?

I have highlighted the relevant bits.


>>>
>>> *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 andpublicknowledge.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
>>>  andtalkingpointsmemo.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 <http://keionline.org/blog/jamie>
>>>    - Add new comment <
>>> http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548#comment-form>
>>>    - Printer-friendly version <http://keionline.org/print/1548>
>>>    - Send by email <http://keionline.org/printmail/1548>
>>>
>>> Cause of foul up <http://keionline.org/node/1548#comment-7970>
>>>
>>> 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 <http://keionline.org/comment/reply/1548/7970>
>>>
>>>
>>> >
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> lac-discuss-en mailing list
>>> lac-discuss-en at atlarge-lists.icann.org
>>> https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/lac-discuss-en
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
> P.O. Box 17862
> Suva
> Fiji
>
> Twitter: @SalanietaT
> Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
> Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
P.O. Box 17862
Suva
Fiji

Twitter: @SalanietaT
Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851



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