Circumventor's

**Mikeus Caesar** · 02-22-2006, 00:49

Me and my friends are constantly annoyed that sites we need for work at school are blocked by software, so i'm setting up a circumventor right now, which should work for about a week before being blocked. But i ask, is doing such things (creating a circumventor to bypass restrictions) legal?

Also, what are your opinions on schools blocking sites by keywords and such? I think it's ridiculous. It means that websites that may be helpful for a project we are blocked because they might contain a link somewhere on the page to a banned site. It's incredibly annoying.

Anyway, this circumventor is really going to hit my electricity bills, leaving my PC on all day.

**Lemur** · 02-22-2006, 04:42

When you say circumventor, I'm assuming you're talking about a proxy. Although, raeding a little on it, I guess the words are used interchangeably. Oh well.

How legal a proxy is depends on your location. In China, it's a jailing offense. In the U.S., it's probably legal, despite the DMCA, which makes everything illegal, sort of. It does violate your school's terms of use, however, so you could get in some trouble there. But the state and Feds should have nothing on you.

I have no idea where the legal status of web proxies stands in Great Britain. Anybody care to elucidate?

**Xiahou** · 02-23-2006, 01:53

I couldnt speak to legality, especially since it's another country. But, most schools I've dealt with have an "Acceptable use" policy for their computers and networks that you either explicity have to agree to or implicitly agree to by using these machines. I'd suspect that bypassing filters would be in violation of any policy and, theoretically, you could be subject to disciplinary action. It'd all depend on your specific school though.