I used to work as a sysadmin for a library. I ran Websense on a monitor port on the last switch before the router and not once did I receive a complaint about a patron not being able to view legitimage content. I know most other libraries in the area ran the software with similar success. The argument that filters don’t work was true a few years ago, but doesn’t hold much weight anymore.

This is just stupid.

A lot of libraries have Wi-Fi now, so anyone with a computer can surf whatever they want – on the libraries dime. If they are blocking what I can see on MY COMPUTER, we call that CHINA not a library.

The fact that the PUBLIC, the PEOPLE, YOU and ME pay for this library and it’s internet access means that the PUBLIC, the PEOPLE, YOU and ME should be able to use the library anyway we wish. The filters that should be protecting the children are called PARENTS.

The government and the library are not our mommies and daddies – ok?

If the FEDERAL government is actually enforcing this internet filter BS, they are violating the First Amendment very clearly. The supreme court has also very specifically stated that this type of CENSORSHIP is up to a communities standards – not the feds.

Rick, If you are all about 1st Ammendment and the gist. Then where do you stand on the 48 million aborted US citizens since 1973?

Since when is viewing porographic material illegal if said person is over 18 YOA? What’s next, will it be illegal for a person over 21 YOA to consume cocktails in view of persons under 21 YOA?

Killing everyone with an IQ below 130 would solve nothing – I don’t imagine too many of the important jobs in the world would get done – like farming. Most people I know with a high level of intelligence don’t really know how to work their arse off like those of lesser intelligences.
(if you need an explanation, consider survival of the fittest. Furthermore, everyone has their own groove and the world gets on beat by moving together)

-Reply to harsh punishment of porn-viewers:
A good idea, but not too ethical to tar and feather. I see lawsuits ready to happen with this decision. HOWEVER, maybe a fine should be imposed on violators (caught).

-Reply to librarians not being smart enough to operate video capture software:
I don’t know many technology-smart librarians, yet even if the librarian happens to be a geek, what’s the chance the library has funding for the cards or computers capable of handling the software? Nothing like that is about to happen, at least not where I live.

-General comment
Internet filters at my school have kept me from getting to valuable information (school-related, of course). Then again, it may be a good thing that I’m not using up bandwidth to listen to internet radio stations or surfing ‘inappropriate’ websites.

But as I see it: Filters don’t stop anything. I don’t view porn and that’s that. For someone that does, a filter can only delay their viewing. If there is to be a solution, it must be closer to the heart than a filter.

Though Congress should not have gotten involved in this at all in the first place there is an easy way to solve the problem, it’s called a whitelist. As opposed to blacklist filters whitelists are very cheap (Squid, a flat file, etc) and, how shall I put this, they WORK.

Blacklists are expensive, by definition out of date as soon as they are updated, and therefore just are not any more than 90% or so effective (the best ones). It is just a flawed approach, because new sites come online, names change, etc, you cannot filter the entire Internet effectively.

Whitelists on the other hand can work, over an admittedly small set of the web, but if libraries starting maintaining a whitelist of their own, and shared it, etc, it could be done fairly easily – and some web in a library is certainly better than none. Such a whitelist would be kept to very mainline sites that are known not to be pornographic, and easily updated by staff, sure this limits the web tremendously and personally I think that is not a good idea at all, but in cases where a filter is needed, especially an unfunded filtering program of this scale, it is the only real option.

And for parents at home, same deal goes, use a whitelist based filtering proxy, hell get an old computer for $100 and setup Squid (works great). This will limit kids access to the sites you define AND the cache makes browsing faster.

Sorry, i responded before reading your entire post 🙂 it’s early…. frankly, i wouldn’t have any problem eating lab grown food…

of some other not monitoring software would do the trick. A way to tell what site a give PC is on. That way you can check the legitimacy of a search (was that woman searching for “breasts” or “breast cancer”) before confronting and someone. And when try to lie you can literally show them the log that proves what sites they were on.

Loss of privacy is a price to pay for free public net access.

I see life in a different light according to many other posters.

Why is it we are unable to control ourselves but put so much effort in trying to control others?

Personally I believe that a library is about not being censored but about having material about everything with all access. Some things need to be protected, like children, from users that want to abuse. Instead we censor everything instead of tackling to real problem which is going after the offender. Video surveillance with the ability to monitor might be a better solution than the typical shotgun approach that has been handed down.

make a law that makes it illegal to view porn in a public library and prosecute the ones caught

I think that it is a real shame that techdirt thinks they have the right to consider this topic as a “misuse of technology.” By whose standards are we judging what is appropriate content to be viewed in the library? No matter how incredulous I find it that people view porn on public computers I believe it is their right to do so as long as it is not harming others. Each public library must create its own standards and policies about this issue, it is not an issue that should be decided upon federally.

People seem to forget that a public library is not the same as a school library, patrons at the library consist of many more people than children. Further most public libraries do not issue library cards to children without parental consent, therefore it is up to the parents to decide the level of access that his or her own child has to the library-especially when many libraries require a membership to use their computers.

Finally, it is simple to say that librarians are stupid or not tech savvy and to use it as an excuse when in reality funding often holds back change and improvements in libraries. I am a student getting my master’s degree in library science and I can tell you factually that librarians are some of the most tech savvy people out there. Unfortunately, those techie librarians are often not the same ones that are working in your public library, they are taking on much more complicated jobs with high-end salaries in the business and technology worlds. This doesn’t mean that public libraries are scraping the bottom of the barrel amongst the librarians that they hire, but that most librarians who have a lifelong career working with the public do so because they have a desire to be of service not because they want to make tons of money. Librarians are much more liberal on their views of disseminating information than people expect. Censorship in the public library can end with a fall down a very slippery slope ending with an awful crash.

I go to this library all the time. They don’t have a good space to make a new private area for the internet, and they just remodeled so likely won’t rearrange things for a while. It’s illegal to refuse to remove the filter for an adult, and most parents won’t act like bodyguards and shadow their 12-17 year old kids around a library- but that won’t prevent them from walking by and seeing the porn. The internet is a public service; porn in libraries is not a right.

i’m an ambitious guy… besides, we’d have the problems of lowbrow comments in blogs AND earth’s overpopulation issues completely solved. 🙂