Warren Michigan P.L.
cadieux@librarybook.com
Tue, 21 Oct 1997 17:04:53 -0400
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 17:04:53 -0400
Message-Id: <3.0.32.19971021170928.007ddaf0@librarybook.com>
From: cadieux@librarybook.com
To: Multiple recipients of list <conntech>
Subject: Warren Michigan P.L.
Tuesday, October 21, 1997
Warren library will wait to add on-line porn filters
By Hawke Fracassa / The Detroit News
Full text at: http://detnews.com/1997/metro/9710/21/10210045.htm
Plans to buy Internet pornography filters for Warren's library computers
are on hold, but they're not dead. Buying blockers is a bad idea -- for
now, according to Library Commission Chairman Richard Palmer. "They all
seem to fail," Palmer said. "They're overbroad in what they censor (and)
they don't do what they say they do."
As a compromise, Palmer said the library board would be ready to buy
filters in the future if an "effective blocker" could be found. Council
President Jim Fouts considers the filters necessary "to enforce community
standards."
Council Vice-President Chuck Busse offered a separate solution -- making
the names of people who access porn via city libraries public. Under
Busse's proposal, which was not acted on, pornography viewers' names could
be published in newspapers, on the city Web site or made available to
anyone who files a Freedom of Information request through the city
attorney's office.
The names would be gathered from city computer records and made available
to the public. Only people who call up sex sites on library screens would
be identified.
What's next: The Warren City Council has appointed council members Cecil D.
St. Pierre and Gloria Sankuer to work with the library board in search of a
quality filter for the Internet. No timetable was established for the
purchase.