"Berman expressed frustration with the ACLU's criticisms"

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

[More examples of the split within the "cyber-rights" community. --Declan]

=====================

Chicago Tribue, November 30, 1997

HEADLINE: MANY VIEWS COULD SNARL 3-DAY WEB CONFERENCE;
HOW TO SHIELD CHILDREN THE BIGGEST ISSUE

BYLINE: By Frank James and Shirley Brice, Washington Bureau.

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
[...]

   One of the conference's main themes will be educating parents about how
filtering software can help them "keep their children out of the red-light
district," Berman said.

   The emphasis on the use of filtering software and expected talk about
Internet ratings systems has prompted the American Civil Liberties Union to
dub the event the "censorware summit."

   The ACLU, which played a major role in opposing the decency act, doesn't
oppose filtering software in principle, but it asserts that parents who buy
it should be able to learn exactly what sites the software blocks and what
criteria were used in deciding to block those sites.

[...]

   Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the ACLU, fears that eventually
there would be "one or two centralized ratings systems that will reflect
particular moral values and have the effect of limiting the breadth and
variety of speech on the Internet."

   "The way these rating systems are going to work," he said "is that
parties other than (consumers) are going to decide whether to employ the
ratings systems. Sites that are rated unfavorably are going to be blocked
out, rendered invisible to the average user."

   Berman expressed frustration with the ACLU's criticisms. "The court said
there were less restrictive ways than government

   censorship, and they pointed at these filtering tools. It was endorsed
by the Supreme Court 9-0. If you take those tools away, what do parents
do?"

   The conference's organizers, Berman said, also want to let parents know
about the efforts of companies with major Internet presences to make the
Web more family-friendly.

[...]