A word filter available to users of the new ICQ99 chat software appears to be an illegal duplication of a controversial list that was part of Cybersitter 2.12, last available in 1997.
ICQ's use of Cybersitter's "bad words" list was brought to the attention of Bennett Haselton, founder of the teen anticensorship organization Peacefire, when someone informed him that the word "peacefire" was blocked by the new ICQ filter.
"As far as the list being used illegally, I came to that conclusion for two reasons," said Haselton. "The ICQ filter blocks all the same words that the old Cybersitter list does -- and that includes words that it would be illogical for them to block, like the phrase 'Don't buy Cybersitter.'"
Haselton said that if ICQ, now a subsidiary of AOL, were going to legally license the list, it would almost certainly license current Cybersitter lists.
The makers of the Cybersitter software, Solid Oak, said ICQ is using the list without its permission.
"We are talking to our lawyers right now, this is very serious," said Marc Kanter, vice president of marketing for Solid Oak. "The damages would be in the millions."
Haselton surmised that whomever obtained the list on ICQ's behalf may have downloaded Cybersitter 2.12 and used the codebreaking tool that Peacefire developed so people could decrypt the blocked site list. Or they may have simply obtained the decoded list from the Internet, where it resides on several researchers' Web pages.
"The other controversy is the continued use of this list," said James Tyre, a member of the Censorware Project. "The old Cybersitter list is one of the most ham-handed products out there. It made no secrets of its bias."
The filtering list in Cybersitter 2.12 caused controversy when Peacefire decoded the blocked-site list, and discovered it included the sites of organizations such as the National Organization of Women, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and any mention of "safe sex" and "gay rights," among other words and phrases.
ICQ spokeswoman Jeanne Meyer said that ICQ's users' access to the list did not amount to an editorial endorsement of the list itself. "We are a company about choice for our customers. The list and the filtering software is a work in progress, and we hope to have new options available by the end of this week."
