1.   At essence, software filters interfere with a freewheeling and robust communication of constitutionally protected speech.

2.   A software filter may claim to block only sexually oriented material but will, in fact, block constitutionally protected speech.

3.   But Shimomura is now at work on a software filter that he hopes will make it easier to ward off such attacks.

4.   Mandatory software filters bypass policies developed at the local level.

5.   Other filters block the site Peacefire which is critical of software filters.

6.   Pacific Bell Internet also uses software filters to prevent spam from coming into its system.

7.   Rheingold and other critics of federal regulation laud the makers of software filters but warn that corporate censorship could be just as bad as government censorship.

8.   So Web sites containing information about British homosexual author Oscar Wilde are blocked by at least two major software filters.

9.   Sims is a member of The Censorware Project, a volunteer group of free speech advocates who are opposed to the use of software filters by public institutions.

10.   Some Internet providers also offer software filters that help remove junk mail.