Get yer stinkin' "bad" language filter the he|| out of my Private Messages!

P Spier wrote: I think you're wrong on this one. The forums are private enterprise, and there are terms of use to which you agreed, whether you read them or not. Adobe can run them any way they da*n well choose. Like the TV, if we don't like what we see, we don't need to use it.

IANAL, but...

They may choose to implement anything they please, but private enterprise or not, Adobe CAN NOT be held liable for the things that are posted to their forums. I'd venture to guess that this is doubly true for anything passed between users in what is ostensibly a "PRIVATE" messaging system. There are hundreds of volumes of case law already on the books about this.

Of course, if there's an ongoing problem, and that problem has escalated to the point of being an imminent threat to life, welfare or property (say, child pornograhy, or terroristic threats, to name two), and it can be proven that Adobe has been made aware of it, then a case might be made against them regarding their corporate or civil liability in such matters. But the liklihood is extremely rare, despite what sensationalistic media stories might compell us to believe.

Regardless of what I may have agreed to by clicking on a box marked "I agree to all terms of service," that does not actually prevent and bar any of us from posting pretty much anything we want to. There has been a notoriously egregious scenario that has played out for YEARS on these very forums, a continuous bit of nasty behavior which has included virulent personal attacks, offline personal harrassment and death threats. Adobe has done NOTHING to remedy the situation, even after several of us informed Adobe management that we had contacted the FBI about it.

So, given that the "bad" language filter is easily circumvented by anyone with half a molecule of creative brain matter; given that Adobe can only be held liable in the rarest of extreme circumstance; and given that the private messaging system is even called "Private," I feel that the inclusion of the language filter—ESPECIALLY within the private messaging system—is something that far oversteps Adobe's authority to manage how citizens of a law-obiding society can communicate with each other.

dave milbut wrote: except if they didn't any yahoo could just post profanity into your private area whether you wanted them to or not...

What's your point? It's YOUR private message! If you want to call me a fücker, then have at it! I'm a big boy, I've seen it all before. I say that there is NO SUCH THING as "bad" language, but that's a different debate that we don't need to get into here and now.

Besides, how often do you think that's going to happen?

It's another baby step toward an all-invasive, all-inclusive environment of "Guilty until proven innocent." And THAT should bother all of us.