[07055]

Library officials and free-speech advocates say the filtering technology used to block Internet porn is imperfect and can also inadvertently block important information on health, sexuality and social issues.

This is no different than the problem with Playboy magazine.

If you ban Playboy, you are also banning the Playboy interview and other non-pornographic stuff in the magazine.

To which the answer is: Tough.

[Dimensio]

Except that the interviews within are part and parcel of the Playboy publication; the two have a distinct relationship. The content that would be blocked along with pornography would not necessarily have any association with any pornographic websites except for the presence one or two often obscure "keywords" used somewhere in the site design.

Further, obtaining Playboy would require that the library incur additional expense for the subscription. Conversely, not allowing access to pornographic materials on the internet requires incurring additional expense for the filtering software.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Thoughts for the day:

Why do we need public libraries?

Why not pay to rent books, just like Blockbuster videos (which we can not has not been put out of business by library movie loans.)

Why provide internet access, but not cable TV viewing rooms?