Imprudence:Media Filters

Version
Added as a feature in version 1.4.0 - 2011.03.20 Changed in version 1.4.0 - 2011.04.02 with the ability to switch Media Filtering on / off

Description
Empowering your viewer with allow, deny, blacklist or whitelist media and streaming audio URLs filtering

Information
You can switch Media Filtering on or off in your preferences. Go to the Audio & Video -tab and select the checkbox Filter Media URLs. Or do this from the Media Filter Settings window. Go to the Edit -menu en click on Media Filter. In the Media Filter Settings window you can select the checkbox Enable Media Filter to switch it on / off.

When entering a parcel, with a media or streaming audio URL set, you are prompted with a dialog like this:




 * Allow, will allow the viewer to load the displayed URL for 1 viewer session only (until you logout).
 * Deny, will deny the viewer to load the displayed URL for 1 viewer session only (until you logout).
 * Blacklist, will store the URL and not load the media or streaming audio, until you edit the stored URL list.
 * Whitelist, will store the URL and load the media or streaming audio every time the viewer encounters it.

Access to Stored URLs


You can access the stored media and streaming audio URLs via the menu Edit. The domains listed in Bold are in the persistent list (i.e. they are whitelisted / allowed or blacklisted / blocked). Domains listed as Italic are for the current browser session only. (i.e. they where temporarily allowed / denied).

You can edit either the allowed domain/object list or blocked domain/object list with the buttons under the respective list.


 * Add, will give you the ability to manually add a Domain / IP to either the whitelist or blacklist.
 * Remove, will remove the selected Domain / IP address from either the whitelist or blacklist.
 * Clear lists, will remove all Domains or IPs from both the whitelist and blacklist. Use with caution!
 * Show IPs, will show the IP addresses associated with Domain names in the lists. This makes the viewer pause to refresh the list, because of the DNS lookup.

Note: To only filter streams that are initiated by a scripted object, as opposed to the user choosing to play the parcel URL you can select the corresponding checkbox. This is enabled by default, to reduce the number of annoying popups. The URLs not initiated by a script will automatically be added to the temporarily allowed list. Therefor this is a less secure option.

additional information
The viewer version uses Henri Beauchamps V4 based of Sione Lomus media filter patch, described as:

“''MediaFilter_v4: based on code by Sione Lomu with a couple of bugfixes by Tonya Souther, this improved patch brings media and streaming audio URLs filtering (to prevent IP ripping by so-called security systems which violate the SL TOS by catching your IP and associating your various avatars with it, thus violating your anonimity). Beside empowering your viewer with allow/deny/blacklist/whitelist functions per domain, this improved patch makes the difference between external servers (domains names filtering) and in-world servers (scripted objects with built-in HTTP servers), and resolves domains IPs to list them and match them against listed IPs. I also fixed various bugs, security holes and shortcomings, refactored the code and improved it, and added a whitelist/blacklist erasing function.''” – source: http://sldev.free.fr

Debug string
Added  to the debug settings to be able to inspect the full URL and media texture UUID.