[iwar] [fc:Court.overturns.library.filtering.law]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-05-31 21:18:52
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Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 21:18:52 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Court.overturns.library.filtering.law]
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Court overturns library filtering law

By Lisa M. Bowman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 31, 2002, 9:55 AM PT

update A federal court has struck down a law that would have required
libraries to block children's access to offensive Web material or lose
federal funds, handing a win to librarians and free-speech advocates.

In a ruling Friday that blasted Web filtering technology for blocking both
too much and too little on the Internet, a panel of the U.S. District Court
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said the Children's Internet
Protection Act (CIPA) violated the First Amendment and urged libraries to
adopt other means to protect children from inappropriate material.

"Filtering products are currently unable to block only visual depictions
that are obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors (or only content
matching a filtering product's category definitions) while simultaneously
allowing access to all protected speech (or all content not matching the
blocking product's category definitions)," the judges wrote. "Any software
filter that is reasonably effective in blocking access to Web pages that
fall within its category definitions will necessarily erroneously block a
substantial number of Web pages that do not fall within its category
definitions."

Congress passed the law in 2000, prompting groups such as the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Library Association (ALA) to sue to
overturn it on free-speech grounds.

Friday's ruling cited multiple examples of the products' tendencies to
overblock--one of the main arguments by opponents of the bill. The court
noted that Web filters had erroneously labeled as adult or sexually explicit
sites including those of orphanages, political candidates and churches.

"Although software filters provide a relatively cheap and effective, albeit
imperfect, means for public libraries to prevent patrons from accessing
speech that falls within the filters' category definitions, we find that
commercially available filtering programs erroneously block a huge amount of
speech that is protected by the First Amendment," the judges wrote.

Filtering companies scrambled to defend themselves after the ruling.

David Burt, a spokesman for filter software maker N2H2, said he was
surprised by the tone of the ruling. "I thought they would come down with
something a little more moderate than that," he said.

Burt compared a filtering company's efforts with those of the antivirus
community, saying that the software companies have to rush to keep up with
the constantly changing Web.

"We're never going to be 100 percent, and it seems like the court expects us
to be 100 percent," he said.

Burt said library clients contribute to about 2 percent of the company's
revenue, and he expects that many will continue to use filters on certain
machines in spite of the ruling.

A community decision
Not surprisingly, librarians praised the decision.

"We are ecstatic that libraries can continue to serve our public and give
them the information they need," said Carrie Gardner, chairwoman of the
ALA's intellectual freedom roundtable.


Special report
Taming the Web
New technologies, laws
raise barriers online

Gardner said the ruling won't lead to immediate changes in libraries. She
said some libraries already offer a filtering option on some machines, and
she doubts they will stop doing that.

"A lot of libraries came to the decision to filter after having a dialogue
with their communities," she said. "I don't know of anyone who's willing to
push that aside."

Friday's ruling means libraries won't have to put filters on every machines.

Although the judges noted that some young people use libraries to access
porn, they pointed out that the filters will not necessarily block out all
material inappropriate for minors.

"Those public libraries that have responded to these problems by using
software filters have found such filters to provide a relatively effective
means of preventing patrons from accessing sexually explicit material on the
Internet. Nonetheless, out of the entire universe of speech on the Internet
falling within the filtering products' category definitions, the filters
will incorrectly fail to block a substantial amount of speech," they wrote.

The judges suggested other methods of dealing with the problem than relying
solely on filters. These methods include letting minors use unfiltered
machines when accompanied by parents and putting terminals out of view of
most patrons so they wouldn't be offended by material on the screen.

"While none of these less restrictive alternatives are perfect, the
government has failed to show that they are significantly less effective
than filtering software, which itself fails to block access to large amounts
of speech that fall within the categories sought to be blocked," the judges
wrote.

When it was passed, CIPA marked the latest in a long line of attempts by
lawmakers to crack down on Web content. Courts also have overturned parts of
earlier laws--including the Communications Decency Act--saying they violated
free speech. Another law, the Child Online Protection Act, is still moving
through the courts after a challenge by the ACLU.

Any appeal to Friday's ruling would automatically go to the U.S. Supreme
Court. 

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