Supreme Court Upholds CIPA

[zakur]

The US Supreme Court yesterday upheld CIPA, the law that required public schools and libraries to put internet filters on computers or lose federal funding. The court in a 6-3 decision ruled that the Children's Internet Protection Act does not violate the First Amendment, but that filters sometimes, do block informational Web sites.

The decision can be read here: United States v. American Library Assn., Inc.

 

[DragonLady]

And it's already causing problems. I noticed that at our local library -which is also the school library- I couldn't even open google.com to perform a search for anything.

I can't believe they upheld this -I honestly thought they would toss it out. The english language is too vague, and there's simply no way for a computer to be able to make appropriate choices about what is and is not "porn".

As it is, my spam filter can't even catch it. A few misspelled words let's even the smuttiest stuff through. And the only thing I know for a fact it refused to deliver was an order confirmation from an that I was waiting for from an online music store. Why it tripped the switch I will never know.

 

[JAR]

And it's already causing problems. I noticed that at our local library -which is also the school library- I couldn't even open google.com to perform a search for anything.

I can't believe they upheld this -I honestly thought they would toss it out. The english language is too vague, and there's simply no way for a computer to be able to make appropriate choices about what is and is not "porn".

As it is, my spam filter can't even catch it. A few misspelled words let's even the smuttiest stuff through. And the only thing I know for a fact it refused to deliver was an order confirmation from an that I was waiting for from an online music store. Why it tripped the switch I will never know.

That's not good. My sympathies are with you.

 

[BobK]

The US Supreme Court yesterday upheld CIPA, the law that required public schools and libraries to put internet filters on computers or lose federal funding. The court in a 6-3 decision ruled that the Children's Internet Protection Act does not violate the First Amendment, but that filters sometimes, do block informational Web sites.

The decision can be read here: United States v. American Library Assn., Inc.

Is there a definition of what qualifies as a filtering program?

Maybe someone in the know could answer that question?

If not, it might be a good project for someone to design a filter that filters almost nothing. Then libraries that do not wish to restrict internet access on their computers could install that software and still retain their funding.

If I understand correctly, filtering software is considered a trade secret whose content/operation doesn't have to be revealed.

 

[rockoon]

How about the filter only filters out sites which mention this absurd federal funding regulation.

 

[zakur]

Potential legal challenges to the application CIPA in public libraries

Abstract: When the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), the ruling was limited to issues of whether the statute, as written, was an unconstitutional limitation of freedom of speech. In holding that the wording of the law did not present an unconstitutional limitation on the exercise of free speech, the Supreme Court did not address the constitutionality of the application of the law. Two of the Justices who concurred that CIPA was legal on its face, in fact, suggested the possibility of future legal challenges to CIPA as it is applied in public libraries. This paper discusses potential problems related to the implementation of CIPA that could affect the exercise of free speech in public libraries. It also suggests possible legal challenges to the application of the law that could be made using established First Amendment jurisprudence. The legal issues that might be used to challenge the Court’s decision include least restrictive alternative, vagueness, overbreadth, request policies, prior restraints, public forum, and limitations on political speech. The discussion of each legal issue offers an approach that could be taken in formulating and raising a legal challenge to the application of CIPA.

 

[scribble]

Re: Re: Supreme Court Upholds CIPA

If I understand correctly, filtering software is considered a trade secret whose content/operation doesn't have to be revealed. [/B]

If you're right, I'd be glad to take the couple of days it would take to put together a "complete filtering solution" for libraries. Of course, someone would have to make sure libraries could use it legally and someone would have to make sure (at least some) libraries would.

Implementing this kind of a system would be simple. There are freeware linux-based proxy systems which do an admirable job of caching remote content. The libraries computers would be required to access this proxy in order to recieve internet content. This is how most reasonable filters work now.

If desired, applying filters to the proxied content would allows the blocking of sites. Of course, our system could apply no filters, or a few carefully chosen ones as is appropriate.

Thinking about it, the only problem seems to be that there is content that most libraries would want filtered, and they'd never buy into a non-filtering filter. For instance, most patrons are going to get upset if "the children" are viewing pornography.

Anyhow, seriously, if there's a demand for this kind of thing, we could make it happen. It doesn't have to be "Somebody should..." -- this kind of thing is easy.

 

[shanek]

This is a very good argument against Federal funding. Why do people always act so surprised when they start attaching strings?

And those of you in favor of vouchers want to extend this system to private schools?

 

[Gem]

This is a very good argument against Federal funding. Why do people always act so surprised when they start attaching strings?

And those of you in favor of vouchers want to extend this system to private schools?

I sorta agree with you. But that wouldn't stop a state from doing the same thing, nor a local government.

But why only in America? There doesn't seem to be this problem in Europe or Canada.

Nor in colleges in America, for that matter.

Gem

Editted to add: P.S.: Btw, isn't that the same supreme court that's suppose to reign in congress if they pass laws that contradict the constitution?

 

[shanek]

Nor in colleges in America, for that matter.

That is NOT the case. My own personal experience at my own alma mater, which was a private college, showed me directly what happened when they started accepting government funds. The bureaucracy just went way out of control after that.

Editted to add: P.S.: Btw, isn't that the same supreme court that's suppose to reign in congress if they pass laws that contradict the constitution?

Yes, it is. Funny, huh?

 

[Gem]

That is NOT the case. My own personal experience at my own alma mater, which was a private college, showed me directly what happened when they started accepting government funds. The bureaucracy just went way out of control after that.

I should have explained myself better. I was talking about why education above high school in the US didn't suffer (in terms of grade, performence and quality) as lower grade schools do from government control. Or why don't the government schools in Canada don't suffer the same fate as their american conterparts?

Gem

 

[zakur]

I sorta agree with you. But that wouldn't stop a state from doing the same thing, nor a local government.

Just like the state of Ohio is trying to do right now, with restrictions that go beyond CIPA:

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/7250548.htm

 

[shanek]

I should have explained myself better. I was talking about why education above high school in the US didn't suffer (in terms of grade, performence and quality) as lower grade schools do from government control.

There are probably all sorts of reasons, but one big one is that colleges can still choose whom they're going to enroll.

Although the comment about educational performance is odd, since this thread is about encroaching bureaucracy, not educational performance.

 

[Segnosaur]

Or why don't the government schools in Canada don't suffer the same fate as their american conterparts?

Canada isn't quite immune from the debate over filtering web content, both in schools, and in public libraries.

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030430.wporn430/BNStory/Technology/

...the board's decision to issue special ID cards to public-library users under the age of 16 — cards that would activate software filters to block pornography — was decried by both sides in the argument last night.

Nicholas Patterson accused the library-board members of becoming "a bunch of perverts." He, like many other citizens, called on the board to install filters on all the computers to prevent all library users from downloading pornography.
...
Cyber censorship in public libraries is at the centre of lawsuits in the United States and is sparking debate among Canada's public librarians, many of whom are closely watching the Ottawa case.

http://www.ocdsb.edu.on.ca/Board/News_Releases/News_Releases_2003/NR_May29b_2003.htm

"Unfortunately, no web filtering software that we have tested over the last five years can handle both the traffic of our enterprise network and the level of protection expected by our staff and parents. We have up to 30,000 requests, per minute, for internet access on our system. With the software we have tested, the volume slows the network to a crawl, the software fails and our teachers are denied access to needed network resources."