[To appear as a chapter in the 2nd edition of _Computerization and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices_, edited by Charles Dunlop and Rob Kling, Academic Press.] Applying Library Intellectual Freedom Principles to Public and Academic Computers[1] Carl M. Kadie kadie@eff.org Version 4 [Footnote 1: Adapted from a presentation to The Fourth Conference On Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, March 26, 1994 in Chicago. A hypertext version of this document, with links to many of the on-line references, is available via WWW/Mosaic from the Computers and Academic Freedom Archive as http://www.eff.org/CAF/cfp94.kadie.html. A plain-text version is also available via anonymous ftp from ftp.eff.org as file pub/CAF/statements/cfp94.kadie.] Introduction Should a university restrict access to on-line discussions of sex? Should a community's Free-Net create a no-children-allowed area? How should a school react when someone accesses the school of facilitating libel? For those of us in the computer community these are new questions with difficult social and intellectual-freedom implications. Our technical training has allowed us to turn computers into a public information resources, but it has not prepared us to manage the human side of that resource. Happily, we need not develop policy from scratch. Librarians have 100 years of experience managing public information resources. They have developed a tradition of resource management that works and that promotes freedom of expression, the freedom to read, and privacy. In this chapter, I'll share some of my experience as an activist applying these library intellectual freedom principles to public and academic computers and networks. I must start with two disclaimers. First, I reference many policies of the American Library Association (ALA), but the conclusions I draw are my own; I don't speak for ALA. I am not a librarian. I am just a computer science student who became involved in these issues as an advocate when, as an extracurricular project, I created and edited a free on-line newsletter called Computers and Academic Freedom. Second, take neither my prescriptions nor those of the ALA as authoritative. Intellectual freedom means nothing if not the right of everyone to draw their own conclusions. Figure 1 lists the library policy statements I have found most helpful. The rest of this chapter will illustrate the application of these polices to computers with eight real-life cases. For each case, I'll describe a scenario, list the library principles I think relevant, tell how I think those principles should be applied, and briefly describe some of the subsequent events through March 1994. =========================================================== 1. Library Bill of Rights 2. Diversity in Collection Development 3. Selection Policy Writing Workbook 4. Intellectual Freedom Statement (ALA) 5. Definition of "Censorship" and Related Terms 6. Freedom to Read Statement 7. Intellectual Freedom Statement (CLA) 8. Statement On Labeling 9. Statement Concerning Confidentiality of Personally Identifiable Information about Library Users 10. Statement on Challenged Materials 11. Access for Children and Young People to Videotapes and Other Nonprint Formats 12. Free Access to Libraries for Minors 13. Expurgation of Library Materials 14. Grade and High School Library Policy 15. Restricted Access to Library Materials 16. Regulations, Policies, and Procedures Affecting Access to Library Resources and Services 17. Policy on Confidentiality of Library Records 18. Evaluating Library Collections 19. Exhibit Spaces and Bulletin Boards Figure 1: Helpful intellectual-freedom policy statements. Eighteen are from the American Library Association, the largest and oldest professional association for librarians in the United States. One is from the Canadian Library Association. Most of the statements can be found in OIF-ALA (1992). On-line, they can be found via gopher with the command "gopher -p1/library/ala/ala-x gopher.uic.edu 70" =========================================================== 1. The Case of the Offensive Newsgroup The Scenario Date: March 12, 1994 You are a computer science professor at the University of Denver and creator of NYX, a free-public access service affiliated with the University. The early edition of tomorrow's Sunday Denver Post includes a story about NYX carrying alt.sex.intergen, an electronic free-speech forum about intergenerational sexual relations. The newspaper didn't interview you and their story leaves the impression that the newsgroup contains illegal material when, in fact, it just discusses "is pedophilia O.K. or evil". Do you remove the newsgroup? (Denver Post, March 13, 1994; CAF News, March 13, 1994). Library Policy The American Library Association's "Library Bill of Rights" says: Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval. In other words, do not remove something just because it is offensive to many or even to yourself. If you believe that the principles of intellectual freedom developed for libraries apply to public access computer sites, you should not remove the newsgroup. Subsequent Events NYX sys op Andrew Burt has declined to kill the newsgroup and (as of March 1994) NYX is still on-line. The Denver Post received faxes critical of its one-sided reporting. 2. The Case of the "Naughty" Hypertext The Scenario Date: January 2, 1994 - February 6, 1994 You are on the computer staff of Indiana University and are the creator of the CICA on-line archive. Your archive is the largest and most popular archive of Microsoft Windows software in the world. The University does not pay to be an archivist; your work on the archive on your own time. The University does, however, provide significant computer and network resources for the archive. Someone submits a Windows hypertext version of Fanny Hill, the 18th century sexual novel. Someone else from New Zealand says that having Fanny Hill on the Net violates New Zealand's harmful-to-minors laws. You fear that the University considers sexual subject matter unacceptable. How should you decide whether to include Fanny Hill in your collection? (The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 29, 1994; Sunday Times-Herald, Bloomington, Indiana, February 6, 1994; CAF News, January 2, January 9, January 30, February 6, February 13, 1994) Library Policy Says: The American Library Association's Statement on Challenged Materials says: [I]t is the responsibility of every library to have a clearly defined materials selection policy in written form which reflects the LIBRARY BILL OF RIGHTS, and which is approved by the appropriate governing authority. The American Library Association's Workbook for Selection Policy Writing (1993) lists selection criteria for grade and high schools that are legitimate with respect to intellectual freedom. Some of the legitimate criteria are: * contribution the subject matter makes to the curriculum and to the interests of the students * contribution the material makes to breadth of representative viewpoints on controversial issues * high degree of potential user appeal * value commensurate with cost and/or need Note that "offensiveness" is not considered a legitimate reason to exclude material. The "Freedom to Read" statement of the ALA and others says: There is no place in our society for efforts [...] to confine adults to the reading matter deemed suitable for adolescents [...]. I believe that the CICA archivist should first clarify his authority. Next, he should create a selection policy consistent with intellectual freedom. Finally, he should apply that selection policy fairly. Subsequent Events The CICA archivist created this selection policy: As is a standard practice with most anonymous-ftp sites (that are supported with funds from an independent host institution), certain programs, files, or software are outside the general scope of archive operations, and therefore will NOT be accepted. These files include (but are not limited to) any software: containing political, religious, racist, ethnic, or other prejudiced or discriminatory messages therein; that is adult or sexually-explicit in nature; otherwise considered unsuitable by the site moderator. (CAF News, January 30, 1994) This policy does not clarify his authority. (For example, is he acting on his own or as an agent of the university?) It violates intellectual freedom standards by banning offensive information. It is not applied fairly. For example, the archive continues to contain the Bible which in the opinion of some is offensive and contains adult material. 3. The Case of the Criticizing Emailing List The Scenario Date: July 1993 You are a computer-system administrator at Brown University, American University, or the University of Georgia. Your school is one of nodes for the Hellas (Greek) mailing list. You have just received email from a system administrator at the Democritus National Research Center in Athens, Greece. He claims that he is suing your school because you are allowing people on the Hellas mailing list to "libel, slander, defame his character" and cause him "great emotional stress, and problems with his family and friends." What do you do? (CAF News, July 18, 1993). Library Policy The American Library Association's "Intellectual Freedom Statement" says: We need not endorse every idea contained in the materials we produce and make available. The statement on "Challenged Materials" says: Freedom of expression is protected by the Constitution of the United States, but constitutionally protected expression is often separated from unprotected expression only by a dim and uncertain line. The Constitution requires a procedure designed to focus searchingly on challenged expression before it can be suppressed. An adversary hearing is a part of this procedure. I think you should get advice from the university legal counsel. Do not take action because of a one-sided legal threat. Subsequent Events Within a day all three sys admin shut down their nodes. The shut-out forum participants then explained their side of the story. They said that one of their main topics of conversation for the past month was the censorship, privacy violations, and arbitrary punishment at the DNRC. They say that this conversation was legitimate and should not be censored. As of July 13, 1993, two of the sites restored their nodes. (CAF News, July 18, 1994). 4. The Case of the "Adult" Material on the Free-Net. The Scenario Date: Pre-1991 You are on the organizing committee of the Cleveland Free-Net, a computer system with the mission of providing computer and network resources for free to the community. Some parents may not want their kids to access some of the more "adult" resources. Ohio may even have a "harmful to minors" law. What do you do? (CAF News 1.32) Library Policy The ALA "Library Bill of Rights" says: A person's right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views. The ALA's "Free Access to Libraries for Minors" says: . . .[P]arents - and only parents - have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children - and only their children - to library resources. [...] Librarians and governing bodies cannot assume the role of parents or the functions of parental authority in the private relationship between parent and child. The ALA's "Access for Children and Young People to Videotapes and Other Nonprint Formats" says: ALA acknowledges and supports the exercise by parents of their responsibility to guide their own children's reading and viewing. The ALA "Freedom to Read" statement says: There is no place in our society for efforts to coerce the taste of others, to confine adults to the reading matter deemed suitable for adolescents, or to inhibit the efforts of writers to achieve artistic expression. The ALA Intellectual Freedom Statement says: With every available legal means, we will challenge laws or governmental action restricting or prohibiting the publication of certain materials or limiting free access to such materials. Free-Nets should not ban so-called adult material. They should not stop minors from accessing it unless the Free-Nets' competent legal advisors say they must. They should lobby the government to do away with so-called "harmful to minors" laws especially as they apply to not-for-profit information providers like libraries and Free-Nets and some BBS's. Subsequent Events As of 1991, the Cleveland Free-Net segregates so-called adult material and requires users, as a condition of access to such material, to certify that they are 18 years old or have a parent's permission. I believe other Free-Nets ban all so-called adult material. 5. The Case of the University-Restricted Topics The Scenario Date: February 1992 - present You are a faculty member at Iowa State University. Your computer administrators have set up a system in which members of the university community can access sex-related newsgroups (such as alt.sex) only by asking for a computer account on a special computer and by "acknowledg[ing] their responsibility in access, using, and distributing material from it" by signing a statement to that effect. Some people say the university's action is appropriate because anyone who wants access can get it. What do you think? (ftp://ftp.iastate.edu/pub/netinfo/news/; CAF News 2.8, 2.30; ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/CAF/banned.1992) Library Policy ALA's "Books/Materials Challenge Terminology" statement says "censorship" is: The change in the access status of material, made by a governing authority or its representatives. Such changes include: exclusion, restriction, removal, or age/grade level changes. The ALA "Restricted Access to Library Materials" says: Attempts to restrict access to library materials violate the basic tenets of the LIBRARY BILL OF RIGHTS. [...] In any situation which restricts access to certain materials, a barrier is placed between the patron and those materials. [...] Because restricted collections often are composed of materials which some library patrons consider objectionable, the potential user may be predisposed to think of the materials as objectionable and, therefore, are reluctant to ask for them. The university should not segregate and restrict material this material. Subsequent Events The restrictions at Iowa State University continue. 6. The Case of the TV "Violence" Chip The Scenario Date: May 1993 - You are member of the United States Congress. Representative Markey has introduced the "V-Chip" bill. Under this bill, the government would require broadcasters to send a violence signal whenever they depict what someone defines as violence. The government would require new TV's to carry a chip that would detect the signal and if enabled, say, by a parent, blank out the screen. Do you support the bill? (Washington Post, February 4, 1994; BNA Daily Report for Executives August 6, 1993; Newsbytes, May 13, 1993) Library Policy The American Library Association's "Statement on Labeling" says: Labeling is the practice of describing or designating materials by affixing a prejudicial label and/or segregating them by a prejudicial system. The American Library Association opposes these means of predisposing people's attitudes toward library materials for the following reasons: Labeling is an attempt to prejudice attitudes and as such, it is a censor's tool.[...] You should oppose the bill. Subsequent Events The bill is in committee. 7. The Case of the Implicit Express Consent The Scenario December, 1992 - present You are a computer sys admin at a university. You read that the CERT (the Computer Emergency Response Team) recommends you include a sign on banner that says (in part): Individuals using this computer ... in excess of their authority are subject to having all of their activities on this system monitored and recorded [...] In the course of monitoring individuals improperly using this system, or in the course of system maintenance, the activities of authorized users may also be monitored. ... Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised that if such monitoring reveals possible evidence of criminal activity, system personnel may provide the evidence of such monitoring to law enforcement officials. (ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/CAF/policies/cert.org; CAF News, 2.62, 2.63, 2.64, 2.65, 3.1, 3.9, November 7-14-28, 1993) Do you include this text in your sign on banner? Library Policy The ALA's "Statement Concerning Confidentiality of Personally Identifiable Information about Library Users" says: The First Amendment [...] requires [... that] the corresponding rights to hear what is spoken and read what is written be preserved, free from fear of government intrusion, intimidation or reprisal. [...] If there is a reasonable basis to believe such records are necessary to the progress of an investigation or prosecution, our judicial system provides the mechanism for seeking release of such confidential records: the issuance of a court order, following a showing of good cause based on specific facts, by a court of competent jurisdiction. You should not require your users to give up their privacy based, apparently, on your personal determination that they are acting in excess of their authority. If you think you need a login banner, work with your competent legal advisor to create one that is more narrow that CERT's. (ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/CAF/policies/cert.org.critique). Subsequent Events At least nine other schools have adopted a variant of the CERT banner, including: Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, Northwestern University, Salt Lake Community College, Stevens Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, University of South Florida, Weber State University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 8. The Case of Filtering Sex "Facts" Out of High School The Scenario Date: January 1993 You are a system administrator at the University of Kentucky. You would like to provide a Netnews newsfeed to high schools. You have already decided not to provide alt.sex, but you would like to provide newsgroup news.answers. The only problem is that the alt.sex FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions, pronounced "facts" ) file, like many other FAQ's, is periodically posted to newsgroup news.answers. Should you filter out the news.answers articles containing the alt.sex's FAQ? (CAF Talk, January, 17, 1993; CAF Talk, January 24, 1993) Library Policy The ALA statement "Expurgation of Library Materials" says: Expurgating library materials is a violation of the Library Bill of Rights. Expurgation as defined by his interpretation includes any deletion, excision, alteration, editing, or obliteration of any part(s) of books or other library resources by the library, its agent, or its parent institution (if any). By such expurgation, the library is in effect denying access to the complete work and the entire spectrum of ideas that the work intended to express. When you filter out articles from a moderated or edited newsgroup without the moderator's permission, and then pass the result on to others, you violate the integrity of the moderator work (and possibly his or her copyright). Thus, you should never expurgate articles from an edited newsgroup without permission. It is also wrong to filter out articles from an unmoderated newsgroup and then pass the results on under the same name. The reason is that readers will have the incorrect impression that they are seeing the whole newsgroup. If you do expurgate articles from a newsgroup, you are in effect creating a new (edited) newsgroup. To avoid confusion, you should give that new newsgroup a new name (perhaps by appending ".censored"). Subsequent Events As of January 1993, the University of Kentucky was providing an expurgated newsgroups with no notice to its readers. Conclusion I choose these eight cases in part because I know them to be controversial. If you disagree with my prescriptions for particular cases, I will not be disappointed. I hope, however, that the cases have demonstrated that library intellectual freedom can reasonably be applied to public computer resources. This is not an assertion that computer media are just like libraries, rather it is an assertion that intellectual freedom is not tied to a particular media. On a practical level, almost all computer policy and intellectual freedom policy is made at the local level. It is made my people like you. To discuses this topic more, join the discussion in newsgroups alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk and alt.censorship. If you are a sys admin, lead the defense of intellectual freedom (the way that librarians do). Finally, if you have an opportunity to make policy, add a line like this one from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee's Netnews policy: [T]he same standards and principles of intellectual and academic freedom developed for University libraries [will] be applied to material received from the [computer] news network. (ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/CAF/policies/netnews.uwm.edu) With just one line, you can connect your computer to 100 years of library intellectual-freedom experiences. References BNA Daily Report for Executives (August 6, 1993). p A23. Computers and Academic Freedom News (CAF News). Accessible via anonymous ftp to ftp.eff.org, directory pub/CAF/news. Computers and Academic Freedom Talk (CAF Talk). Accessible via anonymous ftp to ftp.eff.org, directory pub/CAF/batch. Denver Post, March 13, 1994. ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/CAF/banned.1992. Accessible via anonymous ftp to ftp.eff.org, directory pub/CAF, file banned.1992. ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/CAF/policies/netnews.uwm.edu. Accessible via anonymous ftp to ftp.eff.org, directory pub/CAF/policies, file netnews.uwm.edu. ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/CAF/policies/cert.org. Accessible via anonymous ftp to ftp.eff.org, directory pub/CAF/policies, file cert.org. ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/CAF/policies/cert.org.critique. Accessible via anonymous ftp to ftp.eff.org, directory pub/CAF/policies, file cert.org.critique. ftp://ftp.iastate.edu/pub/netinfo/news/. Accessible via anonymous ftp to ftp.iastate.edu, directory pub/netinfo/news. Newsbytes news service (May 13, 1993). "Proposal Sees Chip Blocking TV Violence". Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association (OIF-ALA, 1992). Intellectual Freedom Manual, 4th edition. Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association (1983). Workbook for Selection Policy Writing, Revised, Chicago. Sunday Times-Herald (February 6, 1994), Bloomington, Indiana. The Chronicle of Higher Education (January 29, 1994). Washington Post (February 4, 1994). "TV to Name Violence Monitors; Some on Hill Say Move Isn't Enough". ================== Corrected references: Subject: Bloomington Herald-Times page numbers Pages A1 and A4 (It's was a front page story).