IP: WSJ -- American Library Association v. Dr. Laura on Net-porn

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Our librarians should try reading the constitution and maybe even 
take my course at Penn djf

> \Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 08:44:57 -0400
> To: politech () vorlon mit edu
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
>
> [Ah, yes. I suppose we must appease the self-proclaimed morality mavens by
> installing smut-filtering software that's precisely as reliable as Windows
> with Active X turned on by default -- that is to say, not at all. Of course
> we should force both children and adults to view the Web through a lens
> that filters out sites like the Quakers, the Bible, Mother Jones magazine,
> and so on, and librarians are idiots for objecting. After all, it's not
> like public libraries are being paid for with tax dollars and thus the
> First Amendment must apply.
> http://www.eff.org/pub/Publications/Declan_McCullagh/cwd.keys.to.the.kingdom
> .0796.article
> http://www.pathfinder.com/time/digital/daily/0,2822,12903,00.html
> --Declan]
>
> ********
>
> WSJ(9/3): WEEKEND JOURNAL: Taste -- Review & Outlook: (Dr.) Laura's Theme
>
>   From The Wall Street Journal
>   My, what tempers our librarians have! When radio talk show host Dr.
> Laura Schlessinger took on the American Library Association's
> inflexible opposition to efforts to keep Internet porn out of
> children's reading rooms, the result was anything but matronly.
>   For her pains, Dr. Laura has been branded "ignorant," "an
> uninformed zealot," and likened to Hitler's book burners. "No2Laura,"
> an Internet librarians' bulletin board, has logged hundreds of
> messages attacking her. One ALA supporter even contacted a sponsor
> about withdrawing its support - until told that this amounted to the
> very censorship they are accusing Dr. Laura of. As Dr. Laura told us,
> "The ALA is so ferociously focused on this notion of rights that they
> cannot comprehend the idea of children's innocence and the protection
> they need from what is out there."
>   At issue is how best to use technology to foster the needs of
> young, inquiring minds while shielding them from its coarser side:
> graphic sex and violence. Though the ALA acknowledges the concern, it
> can bring itself to endorse only the most minimal (and ineffective)
> oversight, such as the occasional monitoring of terminals or the
> installation of shields around screens to protect underage passersby.
> But it vehemently opposes anything that would prevent the smut from
> coming up on the screen in the first place.
>
> [...]
>
> In just the past few weeks alone,
> the towns of Plano (Texas), Nampa (Idaho), Anchorage (Alaska) and St.
> Tammany Parish (Louisiana) have all mandated that blocking software
> be installed in public libraries. And their move comes on top of
> similar actions by local governments in Ohio, Florida, Utah and South
> Dakota.
>   We can well understand the temptation of parents to see in
> technology a threat to values and decency. As Dr. Laura's campaign
> should make clear, however, the real enemy here is not technology or
> the Internet but an ideology that makes no room for common sense.
>
> ###
>
> > Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 18:08:08 -0700
> > To: declan () well com
> > From: "Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jaed () jaedworks com>
> > Subject: Re: FC: Baby site mislabeled as porn shows hazards of Web robots
> >
> > At 5:30 AM -0700 9/1/99, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> > > http://www.dallasnews.com/technology/0831tech1xfiles.htm
> >
> > "But Stephen Gillen, an expert on Internet law, says Thunderstone might
> > technically be liable for suggesting someone is dealing smut."
> >
> > One wonders whether the multitudinous sites misclassified as "porn" by
> > censorware filters might have a similar cause of action...
> >
> > --
> > jeanne a. e. devoto ~ jaed () jaedworks com
> > http://www.jaedworks.com
>
>
>
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