National Writers Union Letter
to Mayor Menino

The Honorable Thomas M. Menino
Boston City Hall
One City Hall Square
Boston, MA 02201

Dear Mayor Menino:

On behalf of the 4,400 members of the National Writers Union--especially the 800 members of the Boston Local--I convey our grave concerns about your recent order to violate the First Amendment rights of the citizens of Massachusetts by demanding that censoring software be installed within the Boston Public Library system and on all other city computers. We are astounded by the rashness and thoughtlessness of your illegal actions. We can only surmise that you either didn't bother to seek competent legal advice, or that you chose for political reasons to ignore the advice you were given.

We are additionally appalled that the Board of Trustees of the Boston Public Library supported your directive--which was in violation not only of the US Bill of Rights but of the Library Bill of Rights as well.

First of all, your order is unconstitutional because it bars adults from access to constitutionally protected material. If the censorware is activated only when minors use library computers, your order is still unconstitutional, because the overwhelming bulk of material blocked by Cyber Patrol is constitutionally protected speech for minors as well.

Cyber Patrol blocks, or has blocked, animal rights and environmental sites (for "gross depictions"), gay and lesbian political sites (e.g., Queer Resources Directory, clari.news.gays, alt.journalism.gay-press, soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi), feminist sites (alt.feminism, soc.feminism, clari.news.women), political and anti-censorship sites (e.g. the Electronic Frontier Foundation's censorship archive; the League for Programming Freedom at MIT, which opposes software patents); sites discussing gun control and the Second Amendment, including one sponsored by the National Rifle Association), and--for some unfathomable reason--the computer science department of the University of Newcastle. (The clari.news groups, by the way, are home to AP and Reuters articles.) Moreover, Cyber Patrol stores an abbreviated form of the URL for blocking, causing it to block sites such as Cyber High School in order to keep minors away from the CyberOS gay video site.

Even if it were possible (and it currently is not) to find censorware that only blocked sexual sites, your directive would still be illegal. The courts have ruled that minors have First Amendment rights, and that includes the right to access sexual material not legally deemed "harmful to minors." (Speech that depicts [in words or pictures] sexual conduct in a manner that is patently offensive under contemporary community standards of what is appropriate for minors; appeals to the prurient interest of minors; and taken as a whole lacks serious literary, scientific, artistic or political value for minors.( Speech that has sexual themes is generally protected, and this includes mere nudity and discussion of sexual matters--which are blocked by Cyber Patrol and other censorware products. We are decades away from developing software sufficiently sophisticated to distinguish speech which is "harmful to minors" from speech that is Constitutionally protected. Until that time, any use of censorware at a public library will be over restrictive and an unacceptable infringement of the First Amendment rights of minors as well as adults.

Even more alarming, Cyber Patrol (like other censorware) is manufactured by a private corporation, and their decisions about what to censor are carefully guarded secrets not open to public scrutiny. The information I've included about Cyber Patrol comes from a Cyberwire Dispatch article, "The Keys to the Kingdom," by Brock Meeks and Declan McCullagh who were surreptitiously given a copy of the "Cybernot" list. Cyber Patrol spokesperson Susan Getgood said, "The printout of the `Cybernot' list never ever leaves this building. It's under lock and key."

Imagine the outcry, Mayor Menino, were you to hire a private corporation to censor all of the books in the Boston Public Library. Imagine also that this firm insisted upon making its decisions behind closed doors, and that the corporation refused to tell citizens which books were being banned, or what criteria was used to ban them. Without public scrutiny, there is no accountability.

According to the Library Bill of Rights, "Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation," "Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval," and "Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment," and "Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas."

The American Library Association has stated:

A variety of private organizations promulgate rating systems and/or review materials as a means of advising either their members or the general public concerning their opinions of the contents and suitability of appropriate age for use of certain books, films, recordings or other materials. For the library to adopt of enforce any of these private ratings to library materials, to include them in bibliographic records, library catalogs, or other finding aids, or other-wise to endorse them would violate the Library Bill of Rights.

Mayor Menino, your hasty and ill-advised action demonstrates once again that citizens cannot trust elected officials to preserve our most essential freedoms. Freedom is preserved only through the vigilance of those who value it dearly enough to stand up to governmental abuse. The National Writers Union is proud to be such a group of patriotic and concerned citizens. When the US Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the unconstitutional Communications Decency Act, we immediately joined with other groups to sue to protect the First Amendment. We were not afraid to stand up to the US Congress and the President of the United States. And we most certainly are not afraid to stand up to you.

The National Writers Union represents freelance writers nationwide. We are journalists, book authors, poets, writers of short fiction, business and technical writers, academics, cartoonists, and workers in all genres. Our membership comprises some of the most distinguished names in American letters. We abhor the abuse of both state and corporate power to crush freedom of expression.

Sincerely,

Robert B. Chatelle, Cochair, Political Issues Committee

cc: Judith Krug, American Library Association; Liam Kelly, Boston Public Library; Susan Flannery, Cambridge Public Library; Bruce Rossley; Ann Beeson, ACLU; John Roberts, ACLU of Massachusetts; Leanne Katz, National Coalition Against Censorship; David Mendoza, National Campaign for Freedom of Expression; Anne Green, People for the American Way; Marcia Pally, Feminists for Free Expression; Chris Finan, Media Coalition; other members of the Free Expression Network; Declan McCullagh, Time; Nat Hentoff, Village Voice and Washington Post; Harvey Silverglate, Boston Phoenix; Boston Globe; other members of the press.