Legal filter

[Dianne L Parham]

Not a "play" lawyer, but an attorney that gives legal opinions to the 
Mayor, Council, City Manager, and departments of the sixth largest city 
in the United States, which happens to be San Diego.  Our attorneys are 
extremely conservative, even as lawyers go, and I hope you won't be 
offended if I take their legal opinion over yours.  Dianne Parham, San 
Diego Public Library

On Wed, 11 Jun 1997 SMTP%DBurt at ci.oswego.or.us@library.sannet.gov wrote:

> Message-ID: <c=US%a=_%p=City_of_Lake_Osw%l=CITYOFLAKE/OSWEGO/00012CE1 at exchange.ci.oswego.or.us>
> From: "Burt, David" <DBurt at ci.oswego.or.us>
> To: Dianne L Parham <DZP at jill.sannet.gov>
> Subject: RE: Legal filter
> Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 15:27:00 -0700
> X-Mailer:  Microsoft Exchange Server Internet Mail Connector Version 4.0.994.63
> Encoding: 41 TEXT
> 
> 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
> 
>