SPECIAL REPORT: Censorware in the Stacks

[Declan McCullagh]

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The Netly News (http://netlynews.com/)
December 22, 1997

SPECIAL REPORT: Censorware in the Stacks
by Declan McCullagh (declan at 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.

[...]