Absurd.From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west ... 530519.stm
Council ban on atheist websites
A [British] city council has blocked its staff from looking at websites about atheism.
Lawyers at the National Secular Society said the move by Birmingham City Council was "discriminatory" and they would consider legal action.
The rules also ban sites that promote witchcraft, the paranormal, sexual deviancy and criminal activity.
The city council declined to comment on the possible legal action, but said the new system helped make it easier for managers to monitor staff web access.
'Very strong case'
The authority's Bluecoat Software computer system allows staff to look at websites relating to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and other religions but blocks sites to do with "witchcraft or Satanism" and "occult practices, atheistic views, voodoo rituals or any other form of mysticism".
Under the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, it is unlawful to discriminate against workers because of their religion or belief, which includes atheism.
National Secular Society president Terry Sanderson said the city council's rules also discriminated against people who practise witchcraft, which is also classed as a legitimate belief.
He said the society would initially contact the council and ask for the policy to be changed, and otherwise pursue legal action.
He said he believed he would have a "very strong case".
Mr Sanderson said: "It is discriminatory not only against atheists but they also are banning access to sites to do with witchcraft.
"Witchcraft these days is called Wicca, which is an actual legitimate and recognised religion.
"We feel very strongly that people who don't believe should not be denied the access that people who do believe have got."
He added that some opinion polls said that up to 25% of the UK population now considered themselves atheist.
A city council statement said the authority had a "long-standing internet usage policy for staff".
It added: "We are currently implementing new internet monitoring software to make the control of internet access easier to manage.
"The aim of this is to provide greater control for individual line managers to monitor internet usage, and for departments, such as trading standards and child protection, to gain access, if needed, to certain sites for business reasons."
UK: City Council ban staff from accessing Aetheist Web sites
"Let your love flow outward through the universe,
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity."
- Sutta Nipata
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity."
- Sutta Nipata
-
Krella Fantana
- Bilingual Blubberer
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Ahhh Bluecoat... gotta love them. We have one of those here where I work.
The pitch the security group made to buy that thing was great. It produced all these nice graphs that showed this enormous amount of time classified as "personal email traffic" (and one or two satanic site hits probably from the 350lb wiccan in the cube next to me) that our company was consuming. The pitch was along the lines of "time spent on personal email sites" X "avg hourly employee cost" = bazillion dollars saved if we buy Bluecoat to deny this traffic during working hours.
Now get the security manager alone and ask why those numbers are so big and you find out that if people leave gmail or hotmail open in a window and it refreshes itself every 20 seconds while I'm in meetings all day - according to Bluecoat I've been spending all day reading email. I mentioned to him that it was a bit unfair to present it that way to the execs, but he certainly got immediate approval to purchase all the Bluecoat he needed.
The pitch the security group made to buy that thing was great. It produced all these nice graphs that showed this enormous amount of time classified as "personal email traffic" (and one or two satanic site hits probably from the 350lb wiccan in the cube next to me) that our company was consuming. The pitch was along the lines of "time spent on personal email sites" X "avg hourly employee cost" = bazillion dollars saved if we buy Bluecoat to deny this traffic during working hours.
Now get the security manager alone and ask why those numbers are so big and you find out that if people leave gmail or hotmail open in a window and it refreshes itself every 20 seconds while I'm in meetings all day - according to Bluecoat I've been spending all day reading email. I mentioned to him that it was a bit unfair to present it that way to the execs, but he certainly got immediate approval to purchase all the Bluecoat he needed.
