Rebecca said:
Indeed, that's what I'm asking for. A
choice as to whether to download
them - an acknowledgement that the image is likely to be offensive, and
then a *choice*. You, on the other hand, seem to be demanding that I
either be forced to download them, or to go the ridiculous extreme of
turning off all images.
Not at all. Do you use Internet Explorer? 95% of people do. The other
day I gave a step-by-step demo of how to make that browser replace all
pictures by placeholders, so you have fine control over the download of
images on an image-by-image basis. This is the way I normally browse WWW
when I'm in a situation where I either am not interested in looking at
pictures or know that some images may be unwanted for other reasons. It's
much nicer than having your browser download everything, especially if
you're on dial-up.
Most other browsers can also do this.
Our policy should not depend on the user's understanding of browser
settings. Many who do not understand these settings have also not
figured out how to set the clock on their VCR. We cannot base policy on
a presumption of what others understand about any outside technology.
As much as possible we need to accept responsibility for what WE do.
Any kind of restrictions about access to images should be based in our
own software.
Ec