US Supreme Court Upholds Internet Censorship

[MistressValerie1]

In a disatrous 6-3 ruling today, the US Supreme Court upheld restrictions on adult library patrons' Internet use in the name of "protecting children." Following is the official Press Release from EFF, intended for public distribution.
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http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Censorware/

For Immediate Release: Monday, June 23, 2003

Supreme Court Supports Library Internet Blocking Law

Damages Free Speech of Library Patrons and Web Publishers

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release
San Francisco - The Supreme Court ruled today that a federal statute requiring Internet blocking, also known as filtering, in libraries receiving certain federal funds or discounts is constitutional. Reversing a lower court decision by the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the court noted that the use of Internet blocking to comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) in libraries is constitutional because the need for libraries to prevent minors from accessing obscene materials outweighs the free speech rights of library patrons and website publishers.

The CIPA law requires all schools and libraries that receive federal funds or discounts to install and use a technology for blocking Internet speech that is obscene, child pornography, or in the case of minors, "harmful to minors." However, based on extensive evidence, the lower court in this case found that many studies report that Internet blocking software is incapable of blocking only the materials required by CIPA, a conclusion supported by many independent studies. The CIPA law is also problematic because speech that is harmful to minors is still legal for adults, and not all library patrons are minors.

"The Supreme Court today dealt a tremendous blow to the free speech rights of child and adult library patrons and Internet publishers by supporting Congress' mandate that libraries must install faulty Internet blocking software to obtain federal funding or discounts," said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Attorney Kevin Bankston, an Equal Justice Works / Bruce J. Ennis Fellow.

"The tragedy is that millions of library patrons now join the millions of students, many of them no longer minors, who face the Internet blocking barrier to obtaining a proper education at schools nationwide," said EFF Media Relations Director Will Doherty. "The Children's Internet Protection Act holds library patrons and students hostage to faulty blocking software created with arbitrary standards foreign to their own communities."

EFF participated as co-counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union in the case.

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I have converted the entire court ruling into a zip file and am attaching it here for your convenience. (It is not copyright since it is a public record.) I have also attached it at my MSN site in the "Documents" section.

This is the first time that the highest US court has ever allowed a restriction on the free-speech rights of adults in order to "protect children," and it represents a major departure from past precedent. I believe that today's ruling is a disaster for free-speech and I only hope that it is not the beginning of a slippery slope of censorship.

Love and liberty,

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Interesting.....when I'm in one of those places, I just use megaproxy.com and get around all security and barriers. But, a blow to all, this is.

 

[sole seeker1]

..... I just use megaproxy.com and get around all security and barriers.

Now that's an interesting tip!

 

[RichardAuc]

I'm not afraid!

True, but note this: there are two facts the decision doesn't mention which make this less scary for us than it could be.

First, this ruling will only affect libraries which receive federal funding. I'm from Austin. Our public library is the only one that receives federal funding, about $90K of it. This is a lot of money--until you note that the library's entire budget is about $17 MILLION. If the library wanted to say "hell w/you guys; we don't need you", there isn't thing 1 the Supreme Court can do about it. And that's just the public library. Austin has eight colleges and universities, each w/their own libraries, all of which get their funds from the state. And Texas (Austin in particular) is none too happy w/the Supreme Court, because of it's recent track record.

Second, the ruling is unenforceable. Even if the librarians want to enforce it (not always so), even the most techno-illiterate knows that search engines have more bugs than a bait store. Trying to keep anyone, especially children, out of any place will only make them that much more determined to get in.

Bottom line: don't worry about it. The Feds are no threat to us. These morons can't even deliver mail, which they're supposed to do, much less anything else. Fear is the only power they have. I choose not to be afraid.