A county library in Virginia will not appeal a court ruling that forces officials to allow unfiltered Internet access in public libraries. In the first decision of its kind, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled last year that Loudoun County violated the First Amendment by installing X-Stop filtering software, which allowed librarians to block access to Web sites deemed obscene. Anti-porn advocates and conservative groups, led by former board member Dick Black, had hoped that Loudoun's 1998 filtering policy would serve as a model for other communities around the country. But Brinkema saw it otherwise, ruling that the buggy software restricted more than just obscenity, and that the broader library policy had problems, too.
Federal law lets victorious attorneys in such lawsuits recover their fees.
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