FC: Philadelphia judges nix library filtering law, cite buggy sw

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Politech archive on CIPA:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cipa

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http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,52903,00.html

   Court: Library Filter Law Illegal
   Declan McCullagh 
   7:01 a.m. May 31, 2002 PDT

   A controversial library filtering law is unconstitutional, a special
   three-judge court ruled on Friday.
   
   The Philadelphia court unanimously said that a federal law designed to
   encourage the use of filtering software violated library patrons'
   rights to access legitimate, non-pornographic websites.

   In a 195-page ruling, the court permanently barred the Federal
   Communications Commission from cutting off funds to libraries that
   don't filter. Under the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA),
   libraries only had until July 1 to pledge to filter if they wanted
   federal funds -- a date that handed the three-judge panel an unusually
   short deadline.
   
   At the heart of the decision was one key point: Buggy software. In the
   most extensive courtroom analysis to date, the panel concluded that
   not only was current technology far too problematic, but its tendency
   to both overblock and underblock verboten sites won't go away:
   "Filtering products' shortcomings will not be solved through a
   technical solution in the foreseeable future."
   
   "We find that, given the crudeness of filtering technology, any
   technology protection measure mandated by CIPA will necessarily block
   access to a substantial amount of speech whose suppression serves no
   legitimate government interest," the court ruled.

   [...]



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