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ACLU And Others Weigh In On CIPA Injunction
A report on censorware.net has an update on the legal fight over the Children's Internet Protection Act; yesterday the ACLU, ALA and others filed briefs supporting the injunction calling CIPA unconstitutional issued by a three-judge court last May. The Supreme Court will hear the case on March 5th. (A search on "CIPA" is a good way to catch up on this act, which is basically about installing mandatory censorware on child-accessable publicly funded computers.)
The CIPA does not stifle free speech in any way. Blocking sites of prurient interest does not prevent anyone from accessing those sites, only at public libraries and public schools. As the ACLU has no problem with the CIPA in regards to public schools, it is obvious they see something wrong with preventing Tom the Bum from jacking off in the back corner of the library.
The reason libraries exist is to provide a place where the common good can be supported through the availability of writings and research. Since pornography serves no common good it stands to reason that libraries can be required to block it. Supporting the common good sometimes means blocking those things which would erode the common good.
I have been pwned because my
The argument in this case is not over principles but over methods (well, the intelligent argument anyway). Nobody is advocating that we should do nothing to help protect children from porn and other objectionable content. The important point is that it should be the PARENTS doing this, and deciding what is appropriate and what is not - not the government. Even if the government is going to set some minimum standard, its methods for enforcement should not include mandatory (And often *overly* restrictive) software.
The ACLU's main point, as I see it, is that the protection of children from porn has become an "overvalued idea", and with this legislation is running rampant over the legitimate free speech rights of many other groups, such as those who want to use computers in libraries to browse the internet. If you can't do a research project on breast cancer, that may not be an ordeal worth jumping up and down screaming over, but it's a step in a very wrong direction.
-Steve