SPECIAL REPORT: Censorware in the Stacks

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

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

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

[...]