Free Expression Policy Project on COPA (net censorship) and Censorware
There's excellect and uncommon commentary on the "COPA" net censorship decision from the Free Expression Policy Project :
The Right Decision; The Wrong Reason
Equally important, this victory has dug us ever deeper into the Internet filtering trap - the embrace of a technological "fix" that, with its mechanistic, heavy-handed use of key words and phrases in place of context, nuance, and human judgment, censors far more speech, and far more irrationally, than even a vague criminal law. Magna cum laude graduates, fans of "Marsexploration," and lovers of "pussy willows" beware.
In fact, I had a censorware report in preparation concerning exactly that topic, nailing down examples from key words. It's some of the lesser research which was derailed and destroyed due to all the attacks and legal risk. All I can do now is put that on the record now, as an empty gesture to history.
By Seth Finkelstein | posted in censorware | on July 01, 2004 11:59 PM (Infothought permalink) | Followups
Similarly, some library list server type forums around the web edit in a manner that amounts to censoring. Supporting editorial privilege is important. Critique misguided editorial practices. For example, librarians at the web link http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/publib and librarians at the web link http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib have censored on the basis on the poplarity of the contributors with others contributing, writing, posting to the listserver public forum.