======= The Netly News (http://netlynews.com/) December 22, 1997 SPECIAL REPORT: Censorware in the Stacks by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) Antiporn crusaders and free speech advocates have locked horns for years over whether public libraries may cordon off large portions of the Internet. A lawsuit to be filed today against a Virginia county promises to answer that question and set new guidelines for free speech in the stacks. Mainstream Loudoun, a local group, and 11 other plaintiffs are challenging Loudoun County's decision to adopt one of the country's most iron-handed Internet policies, The Netly News has learned. In October, the library board voted to buy software called X-Stop that forbids both children and adults from visiting many sexually explicit web sites -- and plenty of innocuous ones too, such as Quaker and AIDS resources. The plaintiffs hope to persuade a federal judge that X-Stop's overzealousness violates not just traditions of intellectual freedom in libraries, but the First Amendment as well. The 47-page complaint, which calls the restrictions "a harsh and censorial solution in search of a problem," also challenges a rule encouraging librarians to look over your shoulder and make snap judgments on which web sites should be off limits. [...]