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Lawyers Sift through CIPA RegulationsWith the dust barely settled on the June Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Children’s Internet Protection Act, libraries are seeking the advice of counsel to help them decide how best—or whether—to comply with the new law. Predictably, there is no lack of written opinions from which to choose.At the request of the American Library Association, the law firm of Ropes and Gray issued an advisory letter August 28 to libraries regarding their legal obligations under CIPA. Libraries seeking e-rate discounts must certify that they are making a “good-faith effort” to identify an Internet filter that officials “genuinely believe can afford protection against access to the CIPA-described visual depictions” of materials considered harmful to patrons 17 years old or younger. Emphasizing that “there are no criminal penalties” for not being in compliance with CIPA, attorneys Thomas M. Susman and Jeanne Cavanaugh also explain that noncompliant libraries are subject to “termination and repayment of federal funds” to support telecommunications costs deemed appropriate by either by the Federal Communications Commission for the e-rate or the Institute for Museum and Library Services for LSTA-funded online connections. Three days before Ropes and Gray issued its interpretation, the chief counsel for Concerned Women for America (CWFA) issued a memorandum that warns libraries against disabling a filter “simply on the request of any adult.” Janet M. LaRue wrote that doing so would “render the CIPA meaningless” and make libraries vulnerable to “paying significant damage awards to library employees who prevail in hostile work environment claims based on exposure to unrestricted Internet pornography.” LaRue offered as proof a $435,000 August settlement of a hostile-workplace suit brought by 12 Minneapolis Public Library workers against the library. In disseminating LaRue’s opinion online September 2, CWFA of Illinois Director Kathy Valente urged her e-newsletter subscribers to “get this to your library board so that they will clearly understand their responsibility as it pertains to federal funding.” Also weighing in was the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which submitted to Congress August 14 a “Study of Technology Protection Measures in Section 1703” in accordance with CIPA provisions. A roundup of best practices used by schools and public libraries to shield minors from sexually graphic material, the study draws two conclusions: “Vendors should offer training services to educational institutions so the institutions can understand and use fully the capabilities of technology protection measures,” and “Congress should amend CIPA’s language to clarify the term ‘technology protection measures.’” Posted September 15, 2003. |
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