Question for the filterers

Jerry Kuntz jkuntz at rcls.org
Tue Mar 25 07:41:23 EST 1997


Christopher Jackson wrote:
> 
> To those who favor filters:  How do you feel about the CDA?  And how do
> you feel about the First Amendment?  Do you feel that laws should
> guarantee access to controversial speech, but that public institutions
> should deny such access?  Or do you think the laws should proscribe such
> speech, and that public institutions should take over while we wait for
> our legislators and courts to catch up?

These questions are being asked in the context of what we know about the
current crop of filtering products, that for the most part impose
blocking on the vendor's terms, and offer little flexibility to access
administrators (or to individual users).
Would free speech enter into this discussion at all if individual users
(and legal guardians of minors) had public workstation filtering choices
within their control? Is it really a big technical stretch to imagine a
product that could do that?

		Jerry Kuntz
		Electronic Resources Consultant
		(not a filtering advocate!)
		Ramapo Catskill Library System
		jkuntz at rcls.org


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