FC: Philly dispatch: Librarian says that filters are Stalinist

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Apr 03 2002 - 21:23:40 PST

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    Photos from mccullagh.org:
    http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/cipa-trial-spring02.html
    
    Politech archive on CIPA (the federal filtering law in question):
    http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cipa
    
    ---
    
    http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51501,00.html
    
       Full Assault on Filter Software
       By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
       
       6:15 a.m. April 3, 2002 PST
       PHILADELPHIA -- To librarian Anne Lipow, filtering software isn't
       merely a bad idea.
       
       Lipow told a panel of federal judges on Tuesday that Congress' attempt
       to force the use of anti-smutware in public libraries is positively
       Stalinist.
       
       "It smacks of authoritarianism," said Lipow, a library consultant in
       Berkeley, California, recalling that the former Soviet Union required
       patrons to acquire signatures from a local official before they could
       obtain certain materials.
       
       That's a not-so-oblique reference to the Children's Internet
       Protection Act, which is being challenged in court in a trial that
       began here last week. The law allows librarians to permit access to
       blocked websites -- but only after they review it and judge whether an
       adult patron has a "bona fide research" purpose.
       
       The filters cannot be overriden for anyone under 18 years old.
    
       [...]
    
    
    
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