Vsnl To Block Risqut And Risky Sites

While policing of the Net has become a topic of heated debate, what has got VSNL's goat is that sites have come up on it offering voice telephony services bypassing international gateway providers in different countries. This means that revenues which would have otherwise gone into VSNL's kitty bypass it completely.

"Each time voice telephony services over the Net are used, we lose revenue," a VSNL official said.

Voice telephony on the Net, though at a primitive stage because of the poor quality of voice on offer, has a promising future because of the near-zero tariffs.

Firewalls are filters -- software or hardware -- built around sites and addresses which Internet service providers (ISPs) want to block out of reach of subscribers. There are several sites that ISPs want to block out. For instance, there are sites which contain detailed information on making bombs, how to rig up a car bomb, pyrotechniques etc.

 

A senior official confirmed that VSNL was working towards blocking certain sites. "But before that we want to examine the issues involved because it (blocking) would go against the culture of the Net," he said. "But, we are sure that we want to block out the sites that offer telephony services, because we feel they take away a part of our revenues," he added.

VSNL's decision comes in wake of decisions by the German and US authorities to put the responsibility of blocking such sites on ISPs. It has been argued that easy access to pornographic material on the Net corrupts young minds.

Further, the spread of dangerous information over the network could have devastating consequences.

ISPs, broadcasters and officials in Asean countries agreed on Wednesday to police the Net and block off sites that run counter to Asian values. Their chief concerns were smut in cyberspace and information on the Net that could spark religious and racial tensions in their countries, a news agency reported.

But there was no agreement on a uniform approach to policing the Net. The Asean officials had agreed that regulatory frameworks would depend on each country.

For instance, policing of the Net in Singapore involves strict controls by licensing only three ISPs who have to screen all material accessed by clients. Other Asean members encourage more self-regulation, and the Philippines says freedom of speech is a critical factor.

However, blocking sites containing pornographic or dangerous information is going to be very difficult for VSNL. For one, site-specific blocking of certain files is easier said than done because several sites on the Net contain such information, which keeps shifting from site to site.

Next, there is no optimal means of stopping access to or downloading *.gif or *.jpeg files, the most widely used digital format storing images.

Trouble is, along with the nudes this means a stop to downloading other `academic' image files. VSNL is working to get over this tricky problem.