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Federal District Court Overturns CIPAA three-judge panel in Philadelphia imposed a permanent injunction May 31 against enforcement of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), a law signed by President Clinton in 2000 to go into effect July 1 that would have forced libraries to equip computers with software designed to block access to Internet pornography and other material deemed harmful to minors or risk losing federal funding. The judges, who heard nearly two weeks of testimony in April, said CIPA went too far. “Any public library that adheres to CIPA’s conditions will necessarily restrict patrons’ access to a substantial amount of protected speech in violation of the First Amendment,” the judges wrote in a 195-page decision. They expressed concern that library patrons who wanted to view sites blocked by filtering software might be embarrassed or lose their right to remain anonymous because they would have to request permission to have the sites unblocked. The ruling was a victory for a coalition of libraries, library patrons, and Web site operators led by the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued to overturn the law on First Amendment grounds. “We are very pleased with the decision,” said Judith F. Krug, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “If CIPA would have become law, libraries in economically disadvantaged urban and rural areas would have been forced to use their already scarce resources to install expensive and unreliable filtering software, or be stripped of important assistance that they need to provide online access to all users.” The court permanently enjoined the Federal Communications Commission and agencies administering the Library Services Technology Act from withholding funds from public libraries that have chosen not to install blocking technology on all Internet-ready terminals. More than $255.5 million has been committed to libraries over four years with the federal e-rate program. LSTA has distributed more than $883 million alone to libraries since 1988. Any appeal of the decision by the government will go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Posted June 3, 2002. |
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