Libraries’ Ban on Internet Porn Sparks Lawsuit

Free speech advocates in Ventura County are knocking heads with county officials over an attempt to keep Internet surfers away from pornography at public libraries.

Ventura County’s library system requires users of branch computer terminals to sign a form promising they will not view sexually explicit material. But such a requirement is unconstitutional, says the Libertarian Party of Ventura County in a lawsuit filed March 3.

The restrictions violate the 1st Amendment rights of library patrons, said attorney William John Weilbacher.

“This isn’t about the merits of pornography,” said Weilbacher, who filed the suit. “It’s about the government having no business saying what you can and cannot look at.”

The suit is one of many that have sprouted up across the nation that pit civil libertarians against public libraries that attempt to keep smut off their public-access terminals.

Public libraries in Kern County in February ended a policy of using software filters to block access to sexually explicit Internet sites after threats of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

A similar case is now pending in Orange County, and in Virginia a library agency vowed to fight all the way to the Supreme Court a challenge to its policy of blocking access to pornography.

While many filters effectively block out pornography, they also can block out sites that have information on such things as AIDS and breast cancer, opponents argue.

Last year the American Library Assn. adopted a resolution condemning the use of filter programs to block constitutionally protected speech.

Weilbacher said even though the Ventura library system does not have a computer filtering system, the rules that require patrons to sign a form saying they will not access certain sites is going too far.

“The general rule is that the government is not allowed to regulate speech,” he said. “It’s perfectly fine to regulate unlawful speech like child pornography, but they’re crossing the threshold by restricting adults from viewing what is legal.”

Eleven members of the Libertarian Party of Ventura County are listed as plaintiffs on the case, including Andrea Nagy, who recently attempted to open the county’s first club to dispense medicinal marijuana.

Weilbacher said one of his clients was disturbed at having to sign the form when he wanted to browse the Internet at his local library.

County library administrators were not available for comment on Friday, and lawyers for the county said they could not comment on the case until they review the lawsuit.

Although public libraries in Los Angeles have had problems with people hogging Internet computer terminals to get access to X-rated material, local librarians say it hasn’t been a problem in Ventura.

Doug Taylor, a monitor at the E.P. Foster Library in Ventura, said he has only had to ask half a dozen people to refrain from peeking at smutty Web sites.

Because patrons that use the Internet have to receive an account, Taylor can determine what kinds of sites someone has looked at after they leave the library. These patrons may be singled out for closer monitoring when they return, he said.

Taylor acknowledge that the system does not always distinguish between smut and art. Once, for example, he questioned a man about his use of a “body art” site.

But monitoring is worthwhile, he said.

“These are terminals that you can see from most of the library floor and it’s infringing on other people’s rights not to see this sort of thing,” Taylor said. “There are legal places where you can browse through this sort of thing.”

But Weilbacher said the rules smack too much of Big Brother. His clients sued, Weilbacher said, only after they made three attempts to contact library officials and have the policy changed.

“I realize the library is having some financial difficulty and [doesn’t] need this kind of thing but frankly this is not something we can let pass,” he said.