Legal filter

[Burt, David]

Diane Parham wrote:

>We've been given an attorney's opinion that "if a library exercises
>content control over the information available of the Internet, it may be
>held liable for the transmission of inaccurate, harmful, or inappropriate
>materials...the decision to exercise control may bring with it tort
>liability."  Has anyone out there gotten legal opinion on this
>technology?  We are waiting for the appellate ruling on the
>"Communications Decency Act of 1996" which may change our current
>library's stand.  I understand the ACLU has some lawsuits pending, but I
>admit I'm not up on where they are at.  Any input on law on filtering
>technology???  Dianne Parham, San Diego Public Library

Dianne,
Was this your city/library attorney or some conference speaker?

Dozens of public libraries and hundreds of school libraries (or so I'm
told) are now filtering, and I know of no case of a library being held
liable under such conditions, but more to the point is the Cox/Wyden
Amendment to the Communications Act.

The Cox/Wyden amendment establishes protection for 'Good Samaritan'
blocking and screening of offensive material.  Specifically, the bill
establishes that no provider or user of interactive computer services
will be held liable for: (1) actions taken voluntarily in good faith to
restrict access to material that the provider or user considers to be
obscene, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or
otherwise objectionable; or (2) actions taken to provide the technical
means to restrict access to such material.

David "Not a lawyer, but a play one on the Internet" Burt

  ***********************************************************
          David Burt, Information Technology Librarian 
          The Lake Oswego Public Library 
          706 Fourth Street, Lake Oswego, OR 97034
          URL:          http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/library/library.htm
          Phone:     (503) 675-2537 
          Fax:           (503) 635-4171 
          E-mail:      dburt at ci.oswego.or.us