单项选择题

Passage Five In a landmark decision, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled November 23, 1998, in Mainstream Loudown v. Board of Trustees of the Loudown County Library that the use of blocking software to restrict internet access in public libraries is unconstitutional. Despite the library’s claims that its actions were justified in the name of “protecting minors from harmful content,” Judge Brinkema ruled that the library could not reduce adult access to standards established for children. “The use of blocking software in libraries offends the guarantee of free speech," she ruled, and “constitutes a prior restraint” on all speech. The Loudown County X-Stop software blocked access to a wide range of websites, including those of Quakers, the conservative Heritage Foundation, and AIDS education groups, as well as information about banned books and safe sex. Relying on Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, Brinkema rejected arguments that the installation of such filtering devices constitutes "a library acquisition decision, to which the First Amendment does not apply." She pointed out that, since the library had originally provided uncensored Internet access and had then taken specific actions to limit it, the situation was analogous to the removal of library materials. The result, she said, was similar to "a collection of encyclopedias from which defendants have laboriously revised portions deemed unfit for library patrons." Although Brinkema’s decision will have a major impact on the development of library policies nationwide, there is a crucial underlying problem that cannot be resolved through the legal process. Filtering software is created and produced by private companies that are quite eager and happy to make, all the decisions for us. And by purchasing and installing their products, we are agreeing to let them do just that. It is to these private companies we are surrendering selection and access to the Internet’s huge database of electronic information. This means that even the staffs at public libraries have no role in the selection process. The Washington Coalition Against Censorship’s new original T-shirt design advocates the only solution we can trust to preserve our First Amendment liberties: “Use your brain: the filter you were born with.” According to the author, the decision about what is the best to read lies with__________.