Cal. Court of Appeals, San Francisco, ruled public libraries fund...
Cal. Court of Appeals, San Francisco, ruled public libraries funded from state and local sources weren’t legally obligated to block access by minors to pornographic Internet Web sites. Court ruling came in lawsuit against Livermore City Library system by…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
woman who claimed her son was traumatized by Internet porn he viewed at city’s central library (Kathleen R v. Livermore, Doc. A886349). Court said libraries, like Internet service providers, weren’t liable for lawsuits arising from content on Web sites their users visited. Court said there was nothing in state law making libraries liable if they didn’t install Internet filters to keep indecent and obscene material from minors. Court said libraries could be liable in cases where librarians actively assisted minors to find obscene Web sites, but not if they simply provided equipment and access and minor found Web smut on his own. Congress recently passed law, now under court challenge, to require that federally funded libraries install smut-blocking filters on Internet terminals used by minors. That law wouldn’t apply to Livermore library’s case because it doesn’t accept federal funding.