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Silicon Valley Panel Says 'No' to Filtering



I found this post in a anti-censorship listserv that I'm a part of.  This is an example of what could be a change in attitudes toward internet censorship and the government's role in controlling web content.  Or maybe it's just an overly openminded local government....

Dana Sircy


Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 10:03:26 -0800
From: "--Todd Lappin-->" <telstar@wired.com>
Subject: Silicon Valley Panel Says 'No' to Filtering

Some preliminary good news from Silicon Valley...

I attended the Santa Clara County Citizens Advisory Commission meeting last
night at the request of one of the anti-censorship activists, and I gave a
brief address to the Commissioners about the future of technologies
designed to shield minors from inappropriate online content.  All-star
lawyer Cindy Cohn (of Bernstein fame) also showed up to deliver a
rock-solid address about the dangers of prior restraint.

A few pro-censorship citizens also got up to speak, but most of the
Commissioners seemed to take them with a hefty grain of salt.

My favorite part of the meeting came when a teenager (age 13 or so) named
Sean got up to speak. Sean began to make a spirited defense of kids' rights
to access information, but he was soon interrupted by the Commission
chairperson, who reminded him that the meeting was intended to focus on the
process of keeping abreast of evolving Internet technologies.  The
interruption interrupted Sean's train of thought and left him a little
flustered, and he eventually retreated back to his seat. Nonetheless, I
thought it was pretty courageous of him to speak, and he handled himself
extremely well.

All in all, I was very impressed with both the proceedings and the library
staff.  The Commissioners had clearly taken the time to understand the
issue, and they were well aware of the dangers and limitations of
censorware.

My colleague, Jennifer Eno, was on hand to cover the meeting for Wired
News; her report follows.

The last step in the struggle is slated to take place today, when the
Commission presents its recommendations to the library's governing board.

- --Todd Lappin-->
WIRED Magazine


>From Wired News: http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/7917.html

Silicon Valley Panel Says 'No' to Filtering
by Jennifer Eno

9:02am  23.Oct.97.PDT
SAN JOSE, California - Wrapping up a six-month debate on
what should or should not be seen on public library Internet
terminals, a citizens' advisory panel in the heart of Silicon
Valley made a recommendation Wednesday night: Content,
for now, ought not be filtered.

"We have the responsibility to provide the broadest
resources possible in the most neutral atmosphere," said
county librarian Susan Fuller during the Santa Clara
County Citizens Advisory Commission's discussion on
censorware. Fuller spoke at a meeting crowded with
anti-pornsters, free-speechers, Net content creators,
parents, and library patrons.

The citizen panel's decision to confirm an earlier 7-3 vote
for open access to the Net on district libraries' public
computers was supplemented by a unanimous vote to form a
standing subcommittee to evaluate the Internet and
emerging filtering technology. The citizen panel's decision
will be submitted Thursday to the library's governing
board.

A local group called Keep the Internet Decent and Safe
touched off the Santa Clara County debate earlier this year
when it demanded that librarians in the town of Gilroy be
prosecuted for exposing children to pornography by
allowing unfiltered access to the Internet. During a
campaign that has captured local headlines for months, the
group has championed a strict filtering policy for the
county's libraries.

Skirmishes over freedom of Net access in public libraries
have broken out all over the United States - and outcomes
have been all over the map. Tuesday night, for instance, the
Loudoun County, Virginia, library board voted to install
filtering software on all public Net terminals and to bar
access altogether for people under 18 unless they had
written permission from parents or guardians. In other
high-profile cases, the Ohio legislature rejected a proposal
to impose filtering on virtually all the state's public
library districts, and the city of Boston decreed the
censorware would be installed on library computers used
by kids.


Copyright © 1993-97 Wired Ventures Inc. and affiliated
companies.
All rights reserved.


*****************************************************************
Dana & Jason Sircy
dsircy@mindspring.com                       jasonsircy@iname.com
"I am a journalist, and under the journalist's Olympian code of
responsibility, I feel no need to intervene. We journalists 
don't have to step on roaches. We just turn on the kitchen lights
and watch the critters scurry."
-- P.J. O'Rourke
*****************************************************************