Block that Babel Fish!

An animal rights resource page, a Holocaust guide, a Latin copy of St. Augustine's Confessions -- the list of seemingly harmless Web sites blocked by Internet filtering programs is long and rich.

But according to Peacefire.org, which tracks the "censorware" industry's every move and missteps, there's a new evil on the filtering block: Babel Fish. At least four programs -- CyberPatrol, Bess, SmartFilter and AOL Parental Controls -- all block the site, which translates text passages and Web pages from one language into another and is an add-on to the AltaVista search engine.

Why bother blocking such a service? Peacefire's Bennett Haselton theorizes that the explanation is tied to Babel Fish's referral system: When the service translates a given page, it tacks the new page's URL onto the Babel Fish domain name, creating an altogether new URL. Since most filtering programs control access with a list of banned Web addresses, Babel Fish could, in theory, be used to circumvent the blocking software.

But Babel Fish's tactic is not unique. In fact, Peacefire published a page last August showing how users could avoid filters by sending pages through Akamai.net. Yet, Akamai, a hugely popular service employed by thousands of Web sites to serve banner ads -- -- remains unblocked. It's a matter of economics trumping morals, says Bennett Hasleton, Peacefire's webmaster. Cutting off access to Babel Fish but not Akamai "raises the question of which is more important: preserving students' access to a useful service like Babel Fish, or preserving advertisers' ability to display banner ads to the students," he says.

And ultimately, Hasleton argues, Babel Fish's block reveals, yet again, that today's filtering programs are flawed. Congress may soon cut off funding to libraries and schools that don't use filters and yet, their mistakes keep piling up. --Damien Cave [5:30 p.m. PST, Feb. 28, 2001]

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D-Day for Napster?

March 2nd. Yup. That's this Friday, Napster fans. At 10 a.m., Judge Marilyn Hall Patel will hold a hearing on the A&M Records vs. Napster case, which could finally shut down the Napster file-sharing free-for-all -- at least for the length of the trial.

A statement from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals explains that the hearing will be Judge Patel's opportunity to modify her original injunction against Napster, as ordered by the recent Court of Appeals decision.

In other words, if Judge Patel makes it so, this may be Napster's Black Friday, the day the service is finally ordered to immediately cease all illegal activities, and when you and your good "friends" in Borneo and Bolivia and Indonesia with whom you "share" your favorite tunes, will have to go elsewhere for your file-swapping needs. OpenNap, anyone? -- Katharine Mieszkowski [2:20 p.m. PST, Feb. 27, 2001]

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Is Peter Pan the next Mahir?

Randy Constan -- "Guitarist, Inventor, Engineer, Eternal Child" -- put off making his homepage for some time. He just "had so much to share!"

His Pixyland page, pointers to which are showing up in e-mail in boxes everywhere (and which had drawn over 250,000 visitors at last count), is a compendium of Constan's seemingly infinite, and clearly irrepressible enthusiasm for life, Peter Pan, God, fairies, dancing, music and costumes.

And he's not kidding about the costume part: Constan may not always wear the tights to work, but his "fashion pages" show off a number of Peter Pan-inspired get-ups -- "The very lovely princess," "Blue Boy," "Little Lord Fauntleroy," -- one of which, according to Constan, warrants a "Total Cuteness Overload Warning."

Like that Turkish sensation of yore, this Peter Pan is seeking his Tinkerbell. Whoever the lucky lady may be (and Constan makes a point that yes, it's a lady he's seeking), we're told she'll need to have a sense of humor about the way Constan "always hints at a Peter Pan look," and she'd better not ask him to lose the Little Lord Fauntleroy hairdo, either.

Constan, who says he "never sat dry-eyed through the end of any episode of 'Touched by an Angel'," holds disdain only for those "phonies" who are bothered by how he's chosen to express his human spirit. And, truth is, it's impossible not to develop a certain fondness for this guy. You may laugh at him, but he's laughing at himself too. -- Amy Standen [4 p.m. PST, Feb. 23, 2001]

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Dale Earnhardt lives on through Napster

Call it peer-to-peer grief sharing.

Mourning the loss of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt -- who died last week after his car crashed into a wall during the last lap of the Daytona 500 -- fans have begun posting tribute songs on Napster's servers. Hundreds of titles ranging from Johnny Cash's "Man in Black" to George Strait's "The Cowboy Rides Away" contain the tag "TRIBUTE TO DALE EARNHARDT" in their file paths. Searches for Earnhardt's name return hundreds of results, a lengthy record of goodwill.

Napster isn't the only place where fans have unleashed an outpouring of sorrow and appreciation; MP3.com and other sites have launched entire pages where fans can grieve, chat and recount old stories of the mustachioed racing star from North Carolina. But the Napster reaction is particularly resonant. In the midst of a week when the recording industry speeds up its attempts to shut down the service, Earnhardt's fans have stepped above the fray. Their efforts prove that music isn't just about money or copyright. Sometimes it's about emotion. -- Damien Cave [1:40 p.m. PST, Feb. 23, 2001]

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