Internet Filters

I had to look up some data on the internet to find out ways of converting an xml/html format to PDF. Over the weekend i had narrowed it down to JasperReports , iText or docBook. So on what was a holiday(today) i decided to go to work download the code and try out samples.
http://www.docbook.org is blocked from my work place. As far as i know This is the location of DocBook - The definitive Guide . Still searching for samples on docbook , i found selfdocbook. When I went to download the sample xml - blocked(the rest of the site worked!). Finally iText I clicked documentation - no luck blocked again. At which point i shutdown my machine and went Home
So herewith a criticism on the Insidious Practice of Internet Site Blocking in vogue at most companies these days
These are the reasons i have heard from various people why this must be so
a) Prevent your employees from wasting time in non work related activities
b) Prevent virus attacks
c) Prevent Objectionable content from being read
d) Prevent distribution of inappropriate materials
e) Prevent illegal activities (like downloading mp3s)
f) Saves Bandwidth by restricting access to sites
So here goes
You cant prevent a) no matter what you do. If your employee is not sincere no amount of policing is going to make it so.
We have an on access virus scanner so if its upto dateno one should be infected . If it isnt the case then the internet via a browser is not going to be the only way to infect the machine.
c) is laughable since no one defines what Objectionable is .
The internet is not the only way for d) and nothing is done of the rest of the ways .
I would say its obvious that e) shouldnt affect the employer but such is the state of our laws.
f) We have had strict policies in place and it hasn't improved the speeds (as perceived by me) one bit.
Arguments about punishing the majority for the sins of the minority fall on deaf ears.
Repeated demonstrations that sites needed for work are being blocked have met no success only trite quotes like 'sometimes business needed sites will get blocked' you just have to tell us we'll unblock it. the fact that it sometimes takes days doesnt seem to concern these representatives of efficiency.
It was interesting to read a debate published by an Indian newspaper about an argument for and argument against restricting internet access to employees. the argument for was made by the security head of my company. The argument against was the CEO of some other indian organisation. At the end the CEO looked like a young dynamic liberal guy whose company seemed to be a cool place to work at, where the employees are trusted. The Security Head came through as an Old fashioned Police Havaldar . The type who looks at a mouse and wonders what new fangled contraption has been invented now
The bottom line is i have one less reason to continue working for my company