Technology - Reuters Internet Report
Web Filtering Lawsuit Challenges U.S. Copyright Law
Thu Jul 25, 5:33 PM ET
By Elinor Mills Abreu
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A 22-year-old law student filed a lawsuit
on Thursday asking a federal court in Boston to let him crack the
digital lock on software that filters Internet Web sites so that he
and others can view blocked sites, some of which he says are useful
to the public.
The suit, filed by the New York-based American Civil Liberties Union
( news - web sites) on behalf of Ben Edelman, challenges the
controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( news - web sites)
(DMCA) of 1998. The law prohibits creation or distribution of tools
that can be used to unlock digital copyright protections.
Edelman, who will enter Harvard Law School in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, in the fall and is a technology analyst at The Berkman
Center for Internet & Society there, claims the filtering software is
flawed and blocks legitimate Web sites rather than just the
pornographic sites it purports to target.
"The core reason filtering software is of concern at the moment is
because it is being forced upon a substantial number of Americans as
they attempt to use the Internet in their local public libraries,
public schools, businesses and even in their homes," Edelman told
Reuters.
For example, a product from Seattle-based N2H2 Inc., named as the
defendant in the lawsuit, blocks breast cancer ( news - web sites)
Web sites and others with vital public health information, such as
the Asian Community Aids ( news - web sites) Services organization,
Edelman said.
The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which took effect in
2001, requires that public libraries and schools receiving federal
funds use filtering software on their Internet-connected computers.
The ACLU challenged the library provision of that law in a lawsuit
filed in March 2001. A Pennsylvania federal judge overturned the law
in May 2002 and the case is on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court (
news - web sites).
Edelman wants to publish the list of blocked sites and distribute
software that would enable others to see the Web sites. The lawsuit
argues that it is within his "fair use" rights under the U.S.
Constitution to do research on the software.
CENSORSHIP TOOL
Filtering software is also being used by governments in other
countries to censor and restrict access to the Internet for
politically motivated reasons, including China, Vietnam, Uzbekistan
and Saudi Arabia, Edelman said.
He said his research found that Saudi Arabia had restricted access to
Web pages including the "woman" entry from the Encyclopedia
Britannica," and the Amnesty International site.
N2H2 is one of the companies vying for a contract to supply Saudi
Arabia with blocking software, the ACLU said.
Part of the lawsuit challenges N2H2's software license agreement,
which prohibits customers from decrypting or otherwise reverse
engineering the software.
The lawsuit claims the license agreement is unenforceable because by
installing the product the customer is forced to automatically
consent to the terms of the agreement and cannot negotiate, Ann
Beeson, ACLU lead counsel on the case, told Reuters.
N2H2 spokesman David Burt told Reuters, "We believe our software
licenses are valid and we do intend to defend them and our
intellectual property."
Other DMCA challenges have not held up.
An appellate judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Princeton professor
who feared recording companies would sue him over research into
digital music copyright protections. And movie studios successfully
sued Eric Corley after he published software to decrypt DVDs on his
hacker Web site, 2600.
In another case, trial is set to begin Aug. 26 for Moscow-based
ElcomSoft Co. Ltd., which was sued for selling software to unlock
copyright protections on digital books.
GEN XY vs Godzilla
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Type: discussion