|
|
|
L.A.C.K. & Censoround
January 31, 2002
Evil corporations, Eugene rejects filters
Here's a surprise from the Virtual Chase: big corporations are lobbying to become more evil!
Meanwhile, the reason why Eugene, OR public library has rejected installing filters: as the Stuff points out, their exisiting policy works.
[TT] BusinessWeek via Virtual Chase
[TT] Register-Guard via Library Stuff
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:16:00 PM
January 30, 2002
Filters, Boucher on DMCA
'brary blog mentioned on Monday a story about a very sensible Florida public library that now lets the parents limit what their children can take out of the library.
LISNews.com links to an editorial by Rep. Rick Boucher calling for a rewrite of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
[TT] via 'brary blog
[TT] News.com via LISNews.com
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:17:26 PM
January 29, 2002
U.K. censorship, filters, inattentive parents, Ashcroft
From Metafilter comes an article by Newton Emerson arguing that in the U.K., censorship is becoming privatised.
The Stuff mentions today a fun little page at Conservative Petitions calling for libraries to install filters. Of course, just by linking to this page, L.A.C.K. will instantly become the number one hit in Google for the search term "library porn."
librarian.net makes the above item even more topical by linking to this story about a library in Eugene, OR that is refusing to install filters.
Of course, the real problem here may not be so much porn on the internet as it is kids being left unattended at the library by their parents. (That would be another link from librarian.net, by the way.)
Oh, and from LISNews.com comes yet more proof that John Ashcroft is a bad bad man. The operative word here is "reportedly," because while this sounds like something Big Bad John would do, it may not mean he will do it. I am such the eternal optimist.
I haven't linked to much stuff on the government's orders to pull federal materials from libraries and so forth because of the September 11 attack, but I will link to this one I found at LISNews.com because it's a good summary of the situation.
[TT] Index on Censorship via Metafilter
[TT] Conservative Petitions via Library Stuff
[TT] Register-Guard via librarian.net
[TT] L.A. Daily News via librarian.net
[TT] ACLU via LISNews.com
[TT] News-Gazette via LISNews.com
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:19:16 PM
January 25, 2002
Police boycott YMCA over Harry Potter
Thanks to Eliz for pointing out to me the sad story of a Pennsylvania police department boycotting the YMCA because the Y promotes Harry Potter and therefore witchcraft as well. Jeez, I hope none of the guys on the police force listen to that Village People song too closely at the next Flyers game.
[TT] via email
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:27:06 PM
January 22, 2002
Blume challenge, Tasini fallout
I've thrown together a small list of links to various news and censorship Web sites. One site worth looking at is the Banned Books Project, which hasn't been updated in awhile but will be shortly. (I asked.) The site looks at the reasons why certain books have been banned. Take a look at the Harry Potter Page, for example.
Also, I've added a little Javascript box that, when checked, will pop all the links open in a new browser window. It works in Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Opera, but not Mozilla. Of course, if you're using Mozilla, you can't read any of this right now anyway.
There is a cease-fire in the Elgin, IL battle in over Judy Blume's Forever. No one expects it to last, tho.
Meanwhile, the fallout to the Tasini case is driving librarians nuts.
Those last two stories were found at Library Stuff, which is now sporting a sexy new look!
[TT] via Library Stuff
[TT] Chronicle of Higher Education via Library Stuff
[EDITOR'S NOTE] I didn't put the links page or the new links box into the new layout of Censoround.
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:28:00 PM
January 21, 2002
Our second Fellowship review
Jen and I saw Fellowship of the Rings again last night, and man Legolas is bad-ass. I can't stress that enough.
I am currently re-reading Lord of the Rings and I have to say that while I hate having the movie taint how I picture the characters in the book, I don't mind having the animated movies image of the hobbits out of my head finally.
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:30:00 PM
January 16, 2002
Harry Potter challenged again, who surfs the web for porn?
Library Stuff today linked to this article about parents in Saskatoon trying to get Harry Potter banned from a local Catholic school. And remember me bitching yesterday about obnoxious cgi-bin URLs? Here's another excessive tangle of letters, numbers and symbols!
Meanwhile, also in The Stuff, the theory that people spend more time surfing for porn than anything else has been proven wrong. Online stores are what people are looking for. So now librarys will be installing anti-commerce filters on their public terminals.
[TT] Globe & Mail via Library Stuff
[TT] via Library Stuff
[EDITOR'S NOTE] Edited headline for accuracy
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:31:00 PM
January 15, 2002
FOIA, web filters
The Virtual Chase has a daily legal research news email that's pretty cool. From that I culled a Law.com article about what's left of the Freedom of Information Act. By the way, check out the URL to this article to see how to take the cgi-bin method of linking to articles to a ridiculous extreme. Christ on a biscuit, it's obnoxious!
Meanwhile, someone posted an article at LISNews.com a different article about a story I linked to earlier about the rise in Web filtering at libraries.
[TT] Law.com via Virtual Chase
[TT] Computeruser.com via LISNews.com
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:34:47 PM
January 11, 2002
Filtering software installation update
LISNews.com links to an article from CNET that refers to a Library Journal story about how 43% of libraries have installed filtering software. So this story is really fourth-hand at this point.
[TT] News.com via LISNews.com
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:38:07 PM
January 10, 2002
More Ashcroft, more Harry Potter, Judy Blume challenge
First up, earlier I referred to a San Francisco Chronicle editorial about John Ashcroft's request for government agencies to ignore the Freedom of Information Act. Today, here's Ashcroft's memo making that request.
Next, the Guardian reports that in 2000 the Harry Potter series were 2000's most challenged books in the U.S., according to the American Library Association.
Speaking of challenges, from the Stuff comes this story in the Chicago Tribune that an Illinois school board is reviewing whether Judy Blume's book Forever will be allowed to remain in the middle school library. (Have you signed up to get the Stuff emailed to you each day?)
[TT] US Department of Justice
[TT] Guardian Unlimited Books
[TT] via Library Stuff
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:40:00 PM
January 9, 2002
Rep. Boucher goes after the DMCA
From Marylaine Block via The Stuff comes this article in which Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA) has his sites set on removing part of the DMCA that landed Dmitry Sklyarov in jail.
[TT] ZDNet via Marylaine Block via Library Stuff
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:43:45 PM
January 8, 2002
Ashcroft ignores FIOA
The San Francisco Chronicle points out that Attorney General John Ashcroft is asking government agencies to ignore Freedom of Information Act requests. Send your complaints to:
U.S. Department of Justice
Attn: Attorney General John Ashcroft
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Granted, your complaint will immediately be shredded, and the FBI will come to your house and interrogate your for being un-American, but at least you made an effort, right?
[TT] SFGate.com
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:45:59 PM
January 7, 2002
My Fellowship review
My wife Jen and I saw Fellowship of the Ring this weekend. My complaint: the score was obstrusive and frequently annoying. Her complaint: the film paints Saruman as a servant (willing or otherwise) of Sauron, whereas the book makes it clear that Saruman has only his own self-interest in mind. Whether this is resolved in Two Towers remains to be seen, of course.
I think we both agree, however, that the highlight of the film was Orlando Bloom as Legolas. Talk about one bad-ass elf!
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
9:47:31 PM
January 4, 2002
Filtering, book banning, sick of Harry Potter
Brian Smith of Laughing Librarian fame has written an article for Marylaine Block about filtering.
Are parents who try to get books banned from public libraries like the Taliban?
By the way, for everyone who finds L.A.C.K. by searching the term "anti-Harry Potter", this article is for you.
[TT] Marylaine Block via Laughing Librarian
[TT] USA Today via LISNews.com
[TT] Guardian Unlimited Film via LISNews.com
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
11:38:56 AM
January 3, 2002
New Mexico book burning update
Here's more on the New Mexico book burning. In addition to Harry Potter, they got J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, and Star Wars as well.
[TT] Alamogordo Daily News via LISNews.com
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
11:47:00 AM
January 2, 2002
Sex ed books challenged
A patron of Wisconsin's Hudson Public Library has asked for the removal of two sex education books, because sex is evil and dirty.
[TT] RiverTowns.net via LISNews.com
[EDITOR'S NOTE] edited headline for accuracy
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
11:49:00 AM
|
|
