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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Librarians are often the unsung free-speech heroes or heroines in our supposedly free society. They protect the rights of the public to read and obtain material that offends others. These gatekeepers often face censorship challenges.

An angry parent might complain about a school library book featuring sexual themes, racially charged language, witchcraft or other material offensive to the parent. A public library patron may complain about a certain book or display. There may be community or school pressure to remove a particular book.

A new book, True Stories of Censorship Battles in Americas Libraries, offers first-person insights of numerous librarians embroiled in censorship battles. Edited by Valerie Nye and Kathy Barco and published by the American Library Association, the book is an excellent read.

Many of the stories are fascinating. One librarian had to deal with library employees who would hide or destroy books. Another had to defend the librarys right to carry Kurt Vonneguts classic novel, Slaughterhouse Five. Another had to ward off censorship efforts by people opposed to a display of books on gay and lesbian themes.

One particularly poignant story features a librarian who initially decided against acquiring the book The Rainbow Boys for the library collection, in part because of the gay characters in the book. Later, the librarian feeling guilty about her initial decision changed her mind and ordered the book.

In the introduction, editors Nye and Barco write: We hope that this book provides insights into how librarians protect the First Amendment in their communities.

The editors have succeeded, as readers of this book will understand that many librarians have learned that defending the First Amendment can be stressful and difficult though ultimately rewarding.

Tags: banned books, book censorship, library, library censorship

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Book about librarians vs. censorship a worthy read

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga.

A Gwinnett County artist said he is the victim of censorship after a library took down his exhibit featuring eight prominent televangelists.

The exhibit includes famous pastors Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen.

Lawrenceville artist Ralph Beach told Channel 2's Kerry Kavanaugh his work is an expression of his faith.

He said when the Grayson Public Library offered to display his pencil-sketched portraits, he jumped at the chance. Beach said the library was fully aware of what he would be hanging.

"I had emailed them several of the pictures," Beach said.

He said he hung the sketches on Saturday, July 7. Beach said they were to remain on display through Aug. 11, but in a matter of days he got a call telling him they needed to come down.

"You can do anything you want but you just can't say 'Jesus.' And in the Bible belt, that's ridiculous," he said.

Beach said the library told him a patron complained that they were offensive and non-inclusive. He said the collection had already been taken down when he went to retrieve them Saturday.

"Where does it stop? Where does censorship stop?" Beach said.

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Nixed televangelist exhibit upsets Gwinnett County artist

The upper house of the Russian Parliament passed a bill on Wednesday that the Russian IT industry believes has high potential to lead to Internet censorship.

The bill, including amendments to several laws, was adopted by the upper house of the Russian Parliament, the Federation Council of Russia. The adoption of the bill makes it easier to block sites that host child pornography, promote drugs and provide instructions about how to commit suicide, as well as other information that affects health and development, the Council said. In particular, the law includes the creation of mechanisms for the rapid removal of web pages that contain materials prohibited from circulation within Russia, the Council said.

IT companies in Russia however, have been warning that the law can have negative effects and lead to censorship because there is a risk that legal content can be blocked more easily too, mainly because it amends the law "On information, information technologies and information protection" to allow the blocking of websites through IP and DNS blockades.

It also looks as though Roskomnadzor, the Russian Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications, will gain the power to blacklist websites without a court's consent as of Nov. 1, Vladimir Medeyko, director of Wikimedia Russia, the organization that runs the local version of Wikipedia, said via instant message.

One of the amended laws leaves the opportunity to blacklist whole domains when only part of the hosted content is illegal. For instance 1.3 million blogs hosted on Blogger are blocked in Russia as a result of a court ruling that ordered the blocking of access to extremist blog posts, Google Russia said earlier this month. And in another lawsuit in 2010, a court ordered a local Internet provider to block the entire YouTube domain because the court deemed one of the hosted movies illegal, according to Google. The company said the new law is a threat for the Internet.

Presenting the bill to the Council, Senator Lyudmila Narusova said that the Internet community has certain worries, particularly regarding the risk of unjustified blacklisting of websites, and that it is necessary to constantly monitor enforcement of the amended law. However, she also pointed out that many European countries, including Germany and the U.K., and also the U.S. have certain mechanisms in place to block websites, adding that the fight against illegal information on Internet is strong in the world, a Council statement said.

Amendments to the law "On information, information technologies and information protection" should not have been made so hastily, said Vladimir Isaev, Manager of International Media Relations at Russian search engine Yandex, via email.

"Yandex is ready to accept official invitations to discuss the Bill or to commit our vision and opinion to government authorities," he said. The effects on the Russian online industry are hard to gauge at the moment, he said adding: "All of us are waiting for subordinate regulatory acts and regulation instructions."

The bill moved through the lower and upper house within a period of two weeks, giving the industry little time to protest the legislation. After Wikipedia became aware of the bill and its potential it decided to block access to its site for 24 hours. The English version of Wikipedia, along with websites including Reddit and Craigslist, conducted a similar protest against the U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) by blocking access to their sites last January. Other Russian online businesses including Yandex, social network VK.com and the Russian version of Live Journal posted banners or blog posts to protest the bill.

These protests were followed by changes to the proposed amendments to legislation. Among the changes the Russian security service FSB (successor to the KGB) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were excluded from the list of government bodies that would be allowed to blacklist sites, before the lower house of Parliament, the State Duma, approved the bill, Medeyko said last week. Wikimedia Russia was also allowed to partake in a working group overseeing the bill and its implementations.

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Russian Parliament's Upper House Approves Internet 'censorship' Bill

A group known as the Internet Defense League will launch Thursday with a cat signal shining into the night sky and onto the buildings of several major cities. The IDL's goal? Efficiently fight off future Internet censorship legislation.

Hopefully this signal won't accidentally stir Batman from his slumber.

When Batman makes his triumphant return in "The Dark Knight Rises" at midnight on July 19, keep an eye on the evening skies if you live in San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., or London for an illuminated "cat signal" spotlight.

The cat's face, similar to Batman's infamous bat signal, stands for the Internet Defense League, and symbolizes a team that acts like the Super Friends of Internet freedom. The IDL's slogan: "Make sure the Internet never loses. Ever."

Meow! (Click to enlarge.)

The amusing idea comes from Fight for the Future (and Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit), a team that rallied 115,000 Web sites and 3 million e-mails to Congress to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Protect IP Act (PIPA), and other Internet censorship bills.

Building on previous successes, the group's latest project wields the support of Web sites and groups such as Mozilla, WordPress, Reddit, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, with "many more" to be announced at the official launch, according to the IDL's Web site. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kans.) plan to attend Thursday's press conference publicly heralding the group, according to Adweek.

The IDL says it still needs many thousands of dollars to fund its goals, but the group told Crave it has enough to shine cat signals in San Francisco, Washington D.C, and New York. Interested parties can donate on a Kickstarter-style page that offers several benefits for small donations -- donate $30 and get a personal "cat signal torch light," for example. The group plans to host parties celebrating its launch at midnight in the aforementioned locales, as well as in an oddball additional location, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

"While the Internet Defense League idea was brewing, people started calling it 'a bat signal for the Internet,' and we ran with it," Holmes Wilson, one of the founders of Fight for the Future and a member of the IDL, told Wired of the decision to choose a cat as the symbol. "Except that if the Internet has a mascot, it's definitely a cat, not a bat."

The IDL hopes the cat signal brings awareness to the idea of quickly mobilizing people when the Internet faces major challenged, similar to an "Internet Emergency Broadcast System," says the IDL Web site. "With the combined reach of our Web sites and social networks, we can be massively more effective than any one organization," the site continues.

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Look in the sky! It's a 'cat signal' for Net freedom

July 12, 2012

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

The Russian parliament yesterday unanimously decided to adopt a bill which allows them to exercise a greater control over the Internet. Now, many Russians are worried this is just the first step to widespread censorship by the Russian government.

Only one man stands between this bill and the law: Russias president, Vladimir Putin.

Similar to the Internet protests which occurred when the U.S. Government voted on bills SOPA and PIPA, some Russian websitessuch as search engine Yandex, LiveJournal, and the Russian version of Wikipediaused their sites as a platform to speak out against the new bill. The Russian Wikipedia, for example, went black once more in protest, warning visitors the bill could lead to the creation of a Russian analogue to Chinas great firewall.

The bills authors say the new measures would help crack down on offensive and troublesome sites, such as sites which feature child-pornography or sites which promote drug use and suicide. Should Putin sign this bill into law, the Russian Government would create a sort of federal blacklist for any site which is found to be outside of the regulations. The owners and operators of these blacklisted sites would be forced to take down and remove these sites.

Though this bill was unanimously passed through the Duma, Russias Parliament, the calls of the protestors may have been heard after all. For instance, according to the Guardian, MPs sought out and removed any vague language which could have been used to immediately shut down any site with the ambiguously defined bad content. The Duma instead opted to use more specific language, shutting down sites which contain child pornography, drug use or suicide. Any other site with questionable content would require a court-order before being placed on the blacklist and subsequently removed. If these websites cannot be taken down, the ISPs and hosting companies responsible for the site will be forced to take it down on their end.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev backed the law as he spoke to Radio Free Europe.

Peoples basic rights and freedoms must be upheld, including the right to information on the one hand and the right to be protected against harmful content on the other hand.

Those who oppose Putin have long feared that such a crackdown on the Internet could happen and now worry that this bill will be the final stop in between Putin and censorship.

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Will New Bill Bring Internet Censorship In Russia?