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California DMV Rejects 1NFOS3C Vanity Plate Because Of 'Sexual Connotation'

Too Much Free Time

from the tsk-tsk-david dept

Mon, Oct 17th 2016 01:05pm -

David Ulevitch, the founder of OpenDNS (now owned by Cisco), apparently discovered that the dirty minds at the California DMV see “lust” in information security. How else to explain that the DMV rejected his request for a vanity plate for the license plate “1NFOS3C”:

As you can see, the DMV rejected it because it “has a sexual connotation, or is a term of lust or depravity. Now, that probably has you shaking your head. What possible “sexual connotation” is there in “information security” shortened and with a few numbers instead of letters? One response to David’s tweet suggests the DMV read it as “in fo’ sex” which brings an entirely new way of thinking about information security… Though as another response shows, the way to get bad words by the California DMV is apparently to use a mirror in designing your vanity plate:

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Comments on “California DMV Rejects 1NFOS3C Vanity Plate Because Of 'Sexual Connotation'”

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36 Comments
That Anonymous Coward (profile) says:

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Having allowed ‘scandalous’ plates slip by them in the past, they take no chances now. If they can’t see the porn connotation they know is hidden there they deny it. They don’t want to look like idiots when the plate gets put on that internet thing & people questioning their intelligence. They are focused so hard on not allowing little old ladies to bitch them out, they allow much worse plates to slip past them while rejecting plates they just don’t understand.

Wouldn’t the easier solution just be let all the crappy plates happen & move on? Trying to cover the world in nerf to protect peoples feels is costly & stupid. If seeing the word FUCK on a plate causes someone to drive off the road, they aren’t fit to be driving. We have people dying around the globe & the thing that sets these people aflame is FUCK on a plate.

Fields says:

Eliminate License-Plates !

…Easy solution — just totally eliminate “license plates”.

There is no genuine need for them — their PRIMARY purpose is to let the government easily identify & track citizens,

Legally, license plates merely indicate your vehicle is properly registered… your car registration slip & windshield VIN also do that,if any serious question arises about it.

Thus, absolutely no legal need for everyone to publicly display a unique identifier on their vehicles.

Sure, it helps some legitimate police work — but also enables massive, illegitimate police activity and government surveillance.

Why not also require everybody to wear name tags with their full legal name when out in public — that would surely be a tremendous help to police work & crime prevention.
(who could possibly object to that ?)

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Eliminate License-Plates ! (no genuine need for license plates)

The license plate is a unique vehicle identifier for when your BMW is in the parking lot of the BMW dealership, while waiting to be repaired.

It helps distinguish one white vehicle from another, without having to spend time describing the shape or color shade, especially when that vehicle is only seen at a glance, or if no other markings are on it.

xtian (profile) says:

Re: Eliminate License-Plates !

Because VINs and slips of paper are so easy to read from a distance.

License plates help enforce the current registration of vehicles. If you don’t believe that a huge number of people would be driving unregistered vehicles without them, you’ve lived a very sheltered life.

There are a fair number of unregistered vehicles on the road already. Car insurance requires that a vehicle be properly registered. Unregistered drivers are thus uninsured. It’s a public safety issue.

Besides, as is said, driving isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. You want to drive on public roads, you jump through the government’s hoops.

Your ideology needs a dose of reality.

coby (user link) says:

Re: Re: Eliminate License-Plates !

….and drivers licenses are so easy to read from a distance!

Drivers without licenses are a much worse safety problem than unregistered vehicles, but cops can’t detect that without pulling them over. Nobody, including you, is at all concerned about that …..but you insist we really really need public license plates.

Your view is totally illogical.

Car registration is a trivial administrative requirement, mostly to collect taxes (registration fees. Do you wear a sticker on your forehead so cops can easily tell if you paid your income taxes ???

Unanimous Cow Herd says:

Re: Re: Eliminate License-Plates !

check your logic bro!

Unregistered drivers are thus uninsured. It’s a public safety issue.

Having insurance does not enhance public safety at all. Safe driving does. Vehicle registration is nothing more than revenue generation. I don’t necessarily agree that we should not have license plates, but having to pay $XXX dollars every year to affix a little sticker to said plate is not necessary. We play plenty in gas taxes to fix the roads if politicians would quit raiding the funds. Poorly maintained roads are a bigger danger than an unlicensed/uninsured driver.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Eliminate License-Plates !

License plates help enforce the current registration of vehicles.

With modern electronic displays and cryptography, a license plate could be replaced with a zero-knowledge proof of registration. Or some type of constantly changing encrypted code that would prevent tracking by anyone without the key, while still allowing identification from a photograph.

JJN says:

Re: Re: Re: Use a simple Decal

… a simple window decal could easily replace license plates.

These are in common use for private parking areas, to show that the vehicle is authorized to park there. Works great.

Small decals are what most states use now to update vehicle registration status on existing license plates — so just get rid of those plates… and put that decal on a window or bumper !

All that the cops (sometimes)need to know is that a specific vehicle is properly registered.

And they absolutely do NOT need to know that info on all vehicles “from a distance” 24/7.

The already visible VIN is really all that the cops need.
With that they can easily determine a vehicle’s registration status.

John Mayor says:

WHOSE PLATE IS IT ANYWAY?

My question is:… Why are people being obliged to place a “PRIVATE LICENSE PLATE” on a “PRIVATE CAR”?
.
It’s one thing to oblige people to secure a license in order to drive (AND!… A LICENSE THAT MAKES SENSE!)!… but!… it’s quite another matter to compel citizens to “PUBLICLY DISPLAY” their “PRIVATE LICENSE” on a “PRIVATE CAR”!
.
In other words, it’s not my nextdoor neighbor’s business whether my “PRIVATE CAR” possesses a given “PRIVATE LICENSE”! And!… I’m not securing a “PRIVATE LICENSE” for “PUBLIC OFFICIALS” to confirm my “PRIVATE LICENSE” at their respective leisure! And!… and importantly enough!… if a “PUBLIC OFFICIAL (e.g., an police officer!) desires to stop my vehicle, he/ she should have a SOUND EXCUSE for doing so!… or, be forced to pay the TORTIOUS CONSEQUENCES for an UNWARRANTED INTRUSION! And, not having a “PUBLICLY DISPLAYED” “PRIVATE LICENSE”, is N-O-T sufficient!
.
The OBJECT of securing a “LICENSE”, is to ensure that one has SUFFICIENT COMPETENCE to drive! Fine!… but!… that doesn’t mean that my acquired license must be PUBLICLY DISPLAYED for all to see! If!… for some LEGITIMATE REASON for which my license ID is to be revealed (i.e., OTHER THAN THE MERE REFUSAL TO HAVE IT PUBLICLY DISPLAYED!), then a PUBLIC OFFICIAL may seek to request such ID!… i.e., if SOUND LEGISLATION exists, to protect the citizen from BOGUS REQUESTS!
.
For a PUBLIC OFFICIAL!… OF WHATEVER “STATION” IN LIFE!… to be running “background checks” on the owner/ driver (but!… sometimes!… ON INNOCENT OCCUPANTS!) of a given vehicle… is C-R-E-E-P-Y! And who is to say what the motives are, for such “checking”! Could it be an attempt to check the “babe” in the front passenger seat of a car?… or– and to put it discreetly!– an attempt to “check the kiddies” riding in the back seat? Can we know the motives of the “checker”?… and!… should we be in the position of HAZARDING a guess?
.
To sum up… there are many ways to hold individuals to account for W-R-O-N-G-S on the road (AND AGAIN!… SUCH W-R-O-N-G-S ARE NOT- SHOULD NOT!– BE MADE SYNONYMOUS WITH NOT HAVING A “PUBLICLY DISPLAYED” “PRIVATE LICENSE”!)… and, e.g., driving erratically, displaying damaged essential car parts (e.g., lights, windows!), talking or texting while driving, screaming through a car window, and etc., and etc.! And afterupon flagging a car down… WITHIN THE PARAMETERS OF A S-O-U-N-D L-A-W!… a PUBLIC OFFICIAL HAS E-V-E-R-Y O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y to stop such a vehicle, and to ask to see any “on-board ID”!… and– if need be!– to arrest someone who is in breach of a given S-O-U-N-D P-A-R-A-M-E-T-E-R O-F L-A-W! But!… and again!… not having a PUBLICLY DISPLAYED P-R-I-V-A-T-E L-I-C-E-N-S-E, should not be made sysnonymous with a SOUND PARAMETER OF LAW! Our day-to-day existence, should not be for the “INVESTIGATIVE CONVENIENCE” of PUBLIC OFFICIALS!… of whatever stripe! That’s not “COMMUNITY”!… that’s a “P-O-L-I-C-E S-T-A-T-E”!
.
Please!… no emails!

John Mayor says:

Re: Re: WHOSE PLATE IS IT ANYWAY?

Do you display a Private license on a "Public Sidewalk" in order to walk up and down a Public Street? Maybe in the future, YOU should consider photocopying your birth certificate, and then staple this to your rear end so that some Public Official can know who you are! Better still, have a "rubber dye" cast of your birth certificate, so that you can have it imprinted on your forehead!
.
A Public Road– ijit!– gives me a Right!… not a Right of some government by virtue of it being a Public Road! Having Free Speech, for example, does not mean I have to vett my speech through some government official in order to express myself! YOU’RE of the view, that possessing Rights and Freedoms is an automatic sign to a government, that I must be beholden to my "government mommy and daddy" in order to excersie such Rights and Freedoms!
.
Please!… no emails!

David says:

It's not the sexual connotation

The complete boilerplate text was “The plate configuration has a sexual connotation, or is a term of lust or depravity.”

And we all know that information security is a haven and comfort of the most depraved of terrorists which our heroes at the NSA and other agencies are fighting valiantly against some of the most fearful foes and obstacles, like the Founding Fathers and the Constitution.

So the objection in question without doubt refers to “depravity” among the listed alternatives. The other verbiage is just there for demonstrating moral support, in the kind of a symbolic cheerleader pyramide known as “charge stacking”.

John Mayor says:

LICENSE TO BE ABUSED

Someone here at Techdirt has decided to remove my spacing protocol between paragraphs (i.e., the addition of a period!), so that now my period and caption, “Please!… no emails!”, appears on the same line as my response!
_____

I have added a period between paragraphs, because sundry websites have removed the space between paragraphs (even if added!)!… making the presentation of the comment a jumbled mess! Now!… someone at Techdirt has decided that it would be “fun” to f*ck with my standard practice!… and force any future longer scripts to read like a SOLID BLOCK OF TEXT!
_____

I can only conclude that this *sshole is a “wanker”!… and has nothing better to do with his/ her time, than to “play” with someone’s Free Expression! Simply put!… “What comes around, goes around!”… and this just cited expression is not merely some quaint philosophic idiom!… but, rather, a DRIVING FORCE OF NATURE!
_____

Please!… no emails!

Wendy Cockcroft (profile) says:

Re: LICENSE TO BE ABUSED

I don’t even bother to read your posts as a rule, I just report them as spam because of your abuse of the English language, and punctuation in particular. Just looking at them gives me a headache.

You won’t be getting emails from any of the TD team and you’re not obliged to provide an email address in the first place (even though the ability to do so is there) so there’s no reason to put that stupid tagline there.

John Mayor says:

Re: Re: LICENSE TO BE ABUSED

I could care less what a sociopsychopath thinks of my skills in the use of English language!… so don’t bother spending your time (SO FREQUENTLY!) indicating your disdain F-O-R T-H-E P-R-O-P-E-R A-P-P-L-I-C-A-T-I-O-N– Y-E-A, S-T-A-T-E_O-F_T-H-E_A-R-T A-P-P-L-I-C-A-T-I-O-N!– O-F T-H-E E-N-G-L-I-S-H L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E! Obviously!… you’re moronic! And the “headache” you’re experiencing, is– NO DOUBT!– the “pangs of conscience” for being such an sshole, and jerk!
_____

I don’t desire any emails from any of the “TD team”!… OH PERSON WHO DOESN’T READ MY MATERIAL AS A RULE! And, if you’re so CONGIZANT of my material (having responded– POORLY!– to sundry!), you’ll note that I’ve not asked for any emails! Or!… don’t you understand what, “Please!… no emails!”, means? And my reason for putting my final expression in the way I’ve chosen, is– frankly!– N-O-N-E O-F Y-O-U-R D--M-N B-U-S-I-N-E-S-S! I-J-I-T!
_________________________________________

TEXTUAL SCREAMING: OR DELUSIONAL BEHAVIOR
_________________________________________

ATTENTION!:… LARGE LETTERING IN A “PASSIVE TEXTUAL COMMENT” D-O-E-S N-O-T TRANSLATE TO “SCREAMING”! THAT CONCLUSION WOULD BE THE “D-E-L-U-S-I-O-N-A-L SIDE EFFECT/ SEQUELA/ EPIPHENOMENON” OF PRESCRIPTION MEDICATION, EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL USE, PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS, BRAIN TRAUMA, OR SOME GENETIC-BASED COGNITIVE PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGIC MALFORMATION (POST-CONCEPTION!)! OR!… IT SIMPLY COULD BE ONE TOO MANY ALLIES ROLLING AROUND IN A TIN CAN, IN WHAT MAY BE P-A-S-S-I-N-G (OR, A-T-T-E-M-P-T-I-N-G T-O P-A-S-S!) FOR A F-U-N-C-T-I-O-N-I-N-G B-R-A-I-N!!
_____

LARGE LETTERING, IS USED TO E-M-B-O-L-D-E-N T-H-E E-M-P-H-A-S-I-S OF REGULAR/ NORMAL SIZED TEXT (IN A FASHION, SIMILAR TO QUOTATION MARKS!)!… AND!… HAS N-O-T-H-I-N-G T-O D-O WITH “S-O-U-N-D”! HYPHENS!… WHETHER USED BETWEEN REGULAR/ NORMAL SIZED TEXT IN AN EXPRESSION, OR BETWEEN EMBOLDENED/ LARGER SIZED TEXT IN AN EXPRESSION, ARE USED TO EFFECT AN A-R-T-I-C-U-L-A-T-I-O-N OF A GIVEN “T-E-X-T-U-A-L E-X-P-R-E-S-S-I-O-N”!… AND!… TO DELIBERATELY “R-E-L-A-X”/ S-L-O-W D-O-W-N THE READING OF AN EXPRESSION, IN ORDER TO BRING “H-E-I-G-H-T-E-N-E-D A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N” TO PARTICULAR EXPRESSIONS THAT ARE DEEMED I-N-T-E-G-R-A-L TO A MESSAGE/ CONCEPT BEING COMMUNICATED! AND AGAIN!… THE USE OF HYPHENS H-A-V-E N-O-T-H-I-N-G T-O D-O WITH “S-O-U-N-D”!
_____

ELLIPSES!… ARE USED TO EFFECT A DELIBERATE BREAK IN WHAT WOULD, OTHERWISE, BE A “QUICKENED” CONTIGUOUS SENTENCE!… USING “CONVENTIONAL” SENTENCE STRUCTURE, AND PUNCTUATION! THEY ARE USED TO ARTICULATE A SENTENCE, IN THE SAME MANNER A HYPHEN MIGHT BE USED TO A-R-T-I-C-U-L-A-T-E A WORD!… AND TO “R-E-L-A-X”/ S-L-O-W D-O-W-N THE MESSAGE BEING COMMUNICATED, IN WHAT WOULD, OTHERWISE, BE A MORE “HURRIED” CONVENTIONAL SENTENCE STRUCTURE! AND!… IS COMPARABLE– I’LL SUGGEST!– TO S-A-V-O-U-R-I-N-G AN AFFORDABLE FINE WINE!… AS APPOSED, TO “GULPING IT DOWN”!
_____

LASTLY!… EXCLAMATION POINTS– FOR ME!– ARE PREFERRED OVER PERIODS, AS I DESIRE “L-U-C-I-D A-T-T-E-N-T-A-T-I-V-E-N-E-S-S” TO THE IDEAS/ NOTIONS/ CONCEPTS BEING COMMUNICATED! AND ONCE AGAIN!… THEIR USE HAS N-O-T-H-I-N-G T-O D-O WITH “S-O-U-N-D”!… N-O-T-H-I-N-G T-O D-O WITH “M-A-N-I-C S-Y-N-T-A-X”!… OR “M-A-N-I-C S-E-L-F E-X-P-R-E-S-S-I-O-N”!
_____

I DON’T DELIBERATELY CHOOSE TO EXPRESS MYSELF USING “HYPERVERBOSITY”!… OR EVEN VERBOSITY! MY WORDS… AT TIMES!… MAY BE MANY!… BUT, THESE ARE CHOSEN CAREFULLY!… AND ARE MEANT TO EXPRESS– EFFICIENTLY, AND EFFECTIVELY!– WHAT IS E-S-S-E-N-T-I-A-L FOR T-H-O-U-G-H-T-F-U-L R-E-A-D-E-R-S TO ENTERTAIN/ RECEIVE! AND, UNLIKE “T-R-U-M-P-I-A-N T-H-I-N-K-E-R-S”, I DON’T JUDGE A BOOK BY THE “SIZE OF ITS C-H-A-R-A-C-T-E-R-S”!… NOR, A WOMAN BY THE PRESUMED “E-A-S-E O-F H-E-R G-E-N-I-T-A-L A-C-C-E-S-S”! AND SO!… IF MY WORDS APPEAR TO BE “I-N-A-C-C-E-S-S-I-B-L-E” TO YOU… TOO BAD! I’M NOT “PUTTING OUT”!… JUST SO Y-O-U CAN “GET OFF”!
_____

YOU’LL JUST HAVE TO “P-L-A-Y” WITH YOUR OWN “D-U-M-B-*-S-S E-X-P-R-E-S-S-I-O-N-S”!… AND SYNTAX!… IN ORDER TO DO THAT!
_____

Please!… no emails!

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