"Did you know that the BBC has an RSS feed just for news about Harry Potter?" [Scripting News]

Whoo - it's official! Run, don't walk, to the National Do Not Call registry and reclaim quiet dinners!

"Most telemarketers cannot call your telephone number if it is in the National Do Not Call Registry. You can register your home and mobile phone numbers for free. Your registration will be effective for five years."

I think the site is a little overwhelmed right now, but keep trying.

I haven't had time to pull all of the CIPA follow-up links together, but here are two I wanted to highlight today.

Filtering Free Speech

"The tales of how anti-porn software can go haywire would be funny if they weren't so common. The Chicago Public Library discovered that filters blocked the Cook County sheriff's registry of sex offenders. An Oregon politician who supported such filters reconsidered after learning that his own campaign site was blocked.

Any sites that so much as mention the words 'rape' or 'incest' can be subject to censorship, including those run by groups whose mission is to counsel survivors of those crimes. At the same time, sites with offensive images can slip past the filters; a computer program can't reliably tell the difference between an obscene photo and an innocent one. Even the most permissive programs often suppress Web pages dealing with safe sex and condom failure rates--a troubling fact, considering that 70 percent of teens report going online for health-related facts. Will those who supported the filter law do anything to help kids access such sensitive information?...

The court's majority opinion left room for a challenge if the law winds up placing a heavy burden on library users. That will happen soon, judging from past experience with filters.

Before this ruling the Supreme Court had generally steered clear of censoring the Internet. It's a disappointment that the court didn't protect free speech rights here--and that federal lawmakers couldn't leave cyber-policing where it belongs--with local librarians, teachers and parents." [Chicago Tribune]

I guess the question now is which library will get caught in the new crossfire first. Mark Glaser also has a story on the SCOTUS decision over at Online Journalism Review. Disclaimer that I'm quoted in the article.

Justices Put Access to Online Information in the Wrong Hands

"...Filtering software is imperfect, blocking legitimate, non-pornographic sites on the subjects of health and sex education, homosexuality and even foreign-language sites. But mom or dad can adjust the filters at home for less rigorous blocking. The problem is at all the various schools and libraries throughout the country. Who polices these software controls? Anyone with an agenda.

'We found that for every page blocked correctly, filters block one or more pages inappropriately,' said Will Doherty, EFF's media relations director. 'We thought a lot of pages would be blocked because of ideological views of the software companies -- and they were -- but what surprised us were the random pages that were blocked for seemingly no reason. There was a punctuation site blocked, and a theater arts site blocked. We don't know why.' "

Here's the thing about filters: if you think that some corporation somewhere should have the right to decide what library patrons can and can't view, then I have a proposition for you. Let me come over and set up a filter on your personal internet access. I get to decide what political, idealogical, educational, informational, and every other -ical site you get to view. You get to surf only those sites I think are appropriate for you. Anything I don't like is out, and in order to view one of those sites, you'll have to come get me to unblock it for you. After you justify your request with what I consider to be a legitimate reason. I'll be right over as soon as I have a free moment and we'll discuss your request. If there are other people in line ahead of you, you'll just have to wait. And hey, I'll do my best to keep the porn out, but I'm not making any promises because that whole web thing is pretty big.

So to reiterate, unless you're willing to turn over your internet access to me, don't try to force someone else's filter on me or anyone else. I triple-dog-dare any of the Supreme Court Justices to take me up on this offer, and then we'll see how they rule.