IP-PUB - Infopeople Public Service Archive: (Fwd) Telecommunications Act of 1996 (#2)

(Fwd) Telecommunications Act of 1996 (#2)

Infopeople PUB List (ippubman@library.berkeley.edu)
Thu, 14 Mar 1996 07:37:57 -0800

Sender: Chris Stensvold <libthou1@CERF.NET>
Subject: Telecommunication Act of 1996

In a recent issue of _Library Hotline_ it was announced that ALA has
issued a warning, based on the opinion of its legal counsel, that
libraries may face criminal prosecution for providing access to or
posting materials on the Internet. The library would not be liable if a
patron used the library's equipment to send or receive "indecent"
materials without the knowledge of the librarian, but if the librarian
discovers it and does nothing about it, there could be a problem.

A greater risk of prosecution lies with libraries placing material on the
Internet or a WWW site. According to attorney Bruce Ennis in the ALA News
Release of March 1996 (v.1 #11):

>...the person posting material could be liable regardless of whether the
>material is an original work, such as the library's card catalog or home
>page information, or is text or excerpts of materials in the library's
>collection.

>Ennis noted that the act applies to words as well as graphic materials,
>making it possible that titles in the card catalogue could be considered
>'patently offensive' or 'indecent' by some community standards. He cited
>works by Chaucer or information on sexuality, AIDS or other medical
>topics as examples of information that might be deemed 'patently
>offensive' or 'indecent by some'.

>The act calls for Internet providers to restrict access to those without
>a 'verified credit card, debit account, adult access code or adult
>personal identification number.'

The Thousand Oaks library director has immediately restricted access to
children - only those over 18 have access, and all internet users are
required to sign a revised release form. Development of our home page is
continuing, but with caution.

At first he wanted to disable all links from our page, but
relented when he found that on Feb. 23 Janet Reno agreed not to
investigate or prosecute suspected violations until the law's
constitutionality is determined. However, the suspension affects only
the portion of the act that bans "indecent" material - content considered
"patently offensive", obscene or pornographic was not covered by the ruling.

What we would like to know is what other libraries are doing about all
this? My impression is that most have actually not thought much about it
yet. Does the State Library have an official stand on the legal
liability we face? Will we be forced to rank and rate all the links we
add to our Web pages and to add Surfwatch or some other limiting software
to our public access terminals?

If you wish to respond to me personally at libthou1@cerf.net, I will be
happy to summarize for the list. Thank you.

Chris Stensvold
Thousand Oaks Library
tolcms@class.org or Infopeople Account: libthou1@cerf.net
(805) 497-6282 x 249
FAX: (805) 449-2675