IP: Internet Filters Used to Shield Minors Censor Speech, Critics Say

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com>
> To: "Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
> Internet Filters Used to Shield Minors Censor Speech, Critics Say
> By JOHN SCHWARTZ
> The New York Times
>
> When Jeffery Pollock ran for Congress last year, he posted his forceful
> opinions on more than a dozen topics on his Web site, pollock4congress .com,
> including his support for the federally mandated use of Internet "filtering"
> software to block pornography in schools and libraries.
>
> Then he discovered that his own site was blocked by one of those filtering
> programs, Cyber Patrol.
>
> The experience led Mr. Pollock, a 47-year-old Republican from Oregon, to
> reconsider his views on filtering. What he once thought of as protection, he
> said, now looked a lot like censorship. "To mandate the federal government
> to legislate morality, I find abhorrent," Mr. Pollock said.
>
> Congress apparently disagrees. In December, lawmakers passed a bill
> requiring federally financed schools and libraries to use a "technology
> protection measure" like filters to block access to obscene material, child
> pornography and anything considered to be "harmful to minors." Tucked into
> an enormous last- minute appropriations bill, the new law bars schools and
> libraries that do not comply from receiving federal money from a number of
> sources — including the popular e-Rate program, which has helped to link
> thousands of public and private institutions to the Internet.
>
> --SNIP--
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/19/technology/19FILT.html?pagewanted=print
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> geoff.goodfellow () iconia com, Prague CZ * tel/mobil +420 (0)603 706 558
> "success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get"
> http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html



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