Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Judge Allows Internet Smut Suit > ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A federal judge has allowed a > lawsuit to go forward that challenges restrictions at a > public library to accessing obscene Internet sites. > > In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Leonie > Brinkema said blocking access to parts of the World > Wide Web may raise constitutional issues. > > ``The central question before this court is whether a > public library may, without violating the First > Amendment, enforce content-based restrictions on access > to Internet speech,'' the judge wrote. > > In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled material on the > Internet should be given as much free speech protection > as books enjoy. > > The Loudoun County Library in northern Virginia > installed X-Stop software on its computers in November > to block patrons from accessing obscene or sexually > explicit language. > > Sites blocked by the filtering software include those > belonging to the San Francisco Examiner, a Methodist > church in San Francisco, a University of Maryland > women's association and a safe-sex page for teen-agers, > the complaint alleges. > > Part of the Examiner's site was blocked because > columnist Rob Morse sometimes writes about gay issues, > according to Morse. > > The plaintiffs include Morse, the American Civil > Liberties Union and John Ockerbloom, who publishes > texts of banned books on his Web site. -- Two rules in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you know. 2. Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
