ACLU of Rhode Island Releases Report on “Troubling� Internet Censorship in State’s Public Libr

Anonymous Patron writes “American Civil Liberties Union : ACLU of Rhode Island Releases Report on “Troublingâ€? Internet Censorship in State’s Public Libraries: The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today released a report showing that public libraries in the state are impeding patrons’ access to information on the Internet through the unnecessarily expansive use of so-called “blocking software.” Calling the findings “troubling,” the 18-page report, “Reader’s Block,” urged libraries to reassess the policies and practices they have implemented.”

April 20, 2005 by Uncategorized 2

You may also like...

2 Responses

  1. GregS* says:
    April 20, 2005 at 6:25 pm

    ill-defined?
    Federal law requires Internet blocking only of sites with certain visual depictions — such as “obscenity” — yet, some libraries have gone beyond this obligation, choosing to censor other types of material as well, including such ill-defined categories as “gambling” and “illegal” sites.

    Seems pretty starightforward to me.

    Reply
  2. Grumpy Librarian says:
    April 20, 2005 at 8:39 pm

    Re:ill-defined?
    Well, illegal is a tricky one. Yes, some sites are clearly illegal at first glance. Then you call the police. But how would a filter do it?

    Anyway, in most cases, it would be the courts to determine whether something is actually illegal.

    The most a librarian could do is say this site is probably illegal. Even that is outside the capabilities of a computer to do effectively.

    (I’m assuming that it is better for libraries to not prevent some illegal activity, than to prevent legal information seeking. If you hold the opposite assumption, then filtering does become straightforward)

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

LISNews Archives