So…you’ve been accused of witchcraft.
What to do? Are you a woman? Well, there’s your first problem. Never fear, because Lapham’s Quarterly has provided you with a handy chart to explain your options. Join us on a hilarious trip of torture, death, and excommunication!
“The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has just filed a complaint (PDF) on behalf of a Salem, Missouri resident named Anaka Hunter, who contends that the Salem public library is unconstitutionally blocking her ability to access information on ‘minority’ religious views. Federal and state law both govern libraries in Missouri, which are generally ordered to block access to obscene online material and child pornography. But the Salem library allegedly goes far beyond the mandate.
The library’s ‘Netsweeper’ content filtering system can block a huge variety of material, from porn to P2P to ‘occult’ to ‘criminal skills,’ but it’s up to the institution to choose which content categories will get filtered. Hunter claims that while looking into Native American and Wiccan religious practices, she was repeatedly halted by the filter’s ‘occult’ and ‘criminal skills’ categories. When she complained, she says that the library staff wasn’t especially helpful.”
(via Library Stuff)
