CDA

[Jon Lebkowsky]

At 02:57 PM 6/30/97 -0700, Ronnie Morgan wrote:
>At 12:40 PM 6/30/97 -0700, Jon Lebkowsky wrote:
>>Ronnie's statement is more like saying, "I support freedom of religion, but
>>only for Baptists and Lutherans." 
>
>Well, I can somewhat see how you could say that I said that, which I
>didn't, since you believe this issue to be a freedom of speech issue.  I
>don't see it that way.  If you, as an adult, can have access to any of that
>stuff, then the sites "freedom of speech" is not being hurt.  When a child
>is denied access, the sites "freedom of speech" is not being hurt anymore
>than it is when a child is denied access into an adult bookstore.

Ronnie, you assume that the only materials blocked are the kinds of
materials one would find in an adult bookstore, and that simply isn't so.
'Pornography' and 'indecency' are very loosely defined. While still a
teenager attending college, I was assigned to read works of literature
that, not too many decades previously, had been defined as pornographic
works.  Materials about those works may very well be blocked as
'pornographic' by many filtering software packages, given the their broad
definition of "unsuitable for minors."  A college student studying at a
library where filterware is implemented may find access to legitimate
research materials blocked.

An anecdote I cheerfully convey at the drop of a hat:  the Main Library in
downtown Austin is named for John Henry Faulk.  CyberPatrol blocked
references to his name, therefore pages listing Austin's Main Library were
blocked by the library's own filterware.  A leave it to you to explain to
me how John Henry Faulk could be considered "pornographic."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Jon Lebkowsky     *     jonl at onr.com     *     www.well.com/~jonl
President, EFF-Austin

"Bring a child into the world, write a book,  assemble a machine, 
build a chair. Those who create have the sensation of playing 
a role  larger than themselves. Those who make no effort to 
create ... will be nothing."  -- Jacques Cousteau
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=