censorship on the net

[Robinson,Linda]

I must say I'm stunned by this (yes, I do live under a rock!).    In the 
state of Ohio their is legislation and funding pending to give libraries 
software and ability to block information on the Internet. Yikes!  This is 
probably not the last of these either.
As the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz said:
"Oh what a world, what a world..."
Linda Robinson
OCLC Information Center
 ----------
From: s.barry
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: censorship on the net
Date: Thursday, May 29, 1997 3:30AM

Web4Libbers,

 I must confess that while there is a great deal of traffic on this list
about censorship and filtering, I tend not to delve too deeply into this
issue.  It does seem that most of the focus has been on the concern over
what are effective agents and whether they should/shouldn't be employed.

 However, recently I have been approached by a colleague who has
suffered from having his web site censored (undeservedly) by
http://www.microsys.com/cyber/  Notification came via third parties
trying to gain access to his site and he was able to remove the block by
checking back with CyberNOT

 A quick look at the cyber site shows forms where surfers can submit
URLs for banning.  I wonder what experience list recipients have
experienced by being on the receiving end of such filtering.  Are
authors warned in any way?  Are any justifications given?  How easy is
it to be able to check why and when and who might have employed such a
ban?

 It does seem to be that in a burgeoning era of commerce and competition
that there are distinct possibilities that filtering can have other uses
and be employed in quite malicious ways.

Sarah Barry
QANTM CMC
s.barry at mailbox.uq.edu.au