[Libs-Or] Fwd: [alacoun] Fwd: FW: EBSCO and Colorado Library Consortium targeted by lawsuit

Fri Oct 12 13:17:36 PDT 2018

Here is the press release from the Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL)
regarding the lawsuit.

On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 12:27 PM Diedre Conkling <diedre08 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Wow, I’m passing this along because what happens in one state often ends
> up happening in other states as well.  It probably is worth it to watch
> this one and see how much traction it gets.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: K.G. Schneider <kgs at freerangelibrarian.com>
> Date: Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 12:22 PM
> Subject: [alacoun] Fwd: FW: EBSCO and Colorado Library Consortium targeted
> by lawsuit
> To: <alacoun at lists.ala.org>
>
>
> Just saw this -- it was shared widely across the California State
> University system. How serious is this?
>
> Karen G.Schneider
> ALA Councilor at Large
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* icolc-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org <
> icolc-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org> *On Behalf Of *George Machovec
> *Sent:* Wednesday, October 10, 2018 10:30 AM
> *To:* ICOLC Confidential List <icolc at lyralists.lyrasis.org>
> *Subject:* [Icolc] EBSCO and Colorado Library Consortium targeted by
> lawsuit
>
>
>
> *Dear ICOLC Colleagues,*
>
>
>
> Today I just received a press release indicating that EBSCO and the
> Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC) are being sued over alleged
> “pornography” in EBSCO products that are being licensed to libraries in
> Colorado.   This is baseless but is of great concern over broad censorship
> issues. In some products, EBSCO provides indexing for magazines like GQ,
> Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, etc that they claim have objectionable material
> along with further links from those articles to Websites they find
> objectionable.
>
>
>
> Our consortium (Colorado Alliance) is not in the suit, but our sister
> in-state CLiC consortium is in the crosshairs since they are licensing for
> public and school libraries.  Be aware that this could spread to your
> region particularly if you do licensing for public or school libraries.
> Other companies like ProQuest and Gale could also be at risk but EBSCO is
> the primary target in this lawsuit since that is the vendor being used for
> a big statewide contract.
>
>
>
> George
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Thomas Ciesielka <tc at tcpr.net>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, October 10, 2018 9:46 AM
> *To:* George Machovec <George at coalliance.org>
> *Subject:* Pornography Hidden in School Children’s Databases: Parents Sue
> Educational Tech Company
>
>
>
> George,
>
> Today, a law suit was filed suit against EBSCO, a nationwide corporation
> that imbeds pornography in databases it markets to schools for use by
> unsuspecting school children for their homework and research, and the
> Colorado Library Consortium (details below).
>
> Please let me know if you would like to speak with an attorney with the
> Thomas More Society.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Tom Ciesielka, TC Public Relations            312-422-1333
>
>
>
> *Pornography Hidden in School Children’s Databases: Parents Sue
> Educational Tech Company*
>
> *EBSCO and Colorado Library Consortium Are Plying Children with Graphic
> Pornography*
>
>
>
> Contact: Tom Ciesielka, 312.422.1333, *tc at tcpr.net <tc at tcpr.net>*
>
>
>
> *(October 10, 2018 – Denver, CO) *The Thomas More Society filed suit
> today against EBSCO, a nationwide corporation that imbeds pornography in
> databases it markets to schools for use by unsuspecting school children for
> their homework and research.  In the same suit, the Thomas More Society
> also sued the Colorado Library Consortium, a tax-supported nonprofit
> corporation that knowingly brokers EBSCO’s pornographic databases to
> schools and libraries throughout Colorado.
>
>
>
> “This case is about two things: protecting children and calling out
> corporate deceit,” explained Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Matt
> Heffron.
>
>
>
> “EBSCO gets schools to purchase databases by falsely promising the
> databases are age-appropriate and specifically tailored for elementary,
> middle and high school children,” said Heffron. The Colorado Library
> Consortium has parroted and supported EBSCO in brokering these databases to
> schools, according to the suit.
>
>
>
> But unknown to most parents, the databases are anything but safe or
> kid-friendly.  They are riddled with easily accessible graphic
> pornography.  And both EBSCO and the Colorado Library Consortium are well
> aware of it, according to the law suit.
>
>
>
> “This is not the internet, as some school officials have falsely stated,”
> said Heffron.  Instead, EBSCO controls and limits the content of its
> databases marketed to schools.  The curated databases are simply initially
> accessed through the internet.  “That control of the databases is why
> parents can expect the databases to be safe for their children at school,”
> he said.  “They should not be infested with adult sexual fantasies.”
>
>
>
> The law suit is filed under the Colorado Deceptive Trade Practices Act,
> under which it is illegal to make false claims to sell a product.  “These
> databases definitely are not age-appropriate, nor can parents consider them
> reliable, as EBSCO claims,” said Heffron.
>
>
>
> Heffron and the Thomas More Society are representing Pornography is Not
> Education, a Colorado group that includes parents who are “understandably
> outraged” at what they have discovered, said Heffron.
>
>
>
> Parents in Aurora, Colorado, initially discovered two years ago that EBSCO
> databases marketed for use by school children contained substantial amounts
> of easily accessible, hardcore pornography. And they discovered the EBSCO
> database system bypasses school internet filters and private,
> parent-supplied internet filters.  Within the last year, the Aurora parents
> have been joined by parents and citizens in other Colorado counties.
>
>
>
> A month ago, the parents claimed a major victory after one of the largest
> school districts in Colorado, Cherry Creek, acknowledged it had
> discontinued purchasing or using any products from EBSCO.  That development
> followed a two-year struggle with the parents ... and just before to the
> filing of a law suit against the school district by the Thomas More Society.
>
>
>
> “We were happy Cherry Creek finally did the right thing,” said Dr. Robin
> Paterson, one of the parents most involved in the effort.  “But EBSCO still
> is supplying its pornographic databases to school children in other school
> districts across Colorado.  With this law suit being filed today, the other
> shoe has dropped.  Now it’s time for EBSCO and the Colorado Library
> Consortium to do the right thing also.”
>
>
>
> “EBSCO had plenty of chances to avoid a law suit,” said Paterson.  “We
> tried to work with them for the last two years. So did the National Center
> on Sexual Exploitation. But all EBSCO was willing to do is put on a
> band-aid, not fix the problem.”  Due to the materials discovered by the
> Colorado parents, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation named EBSCO
> to both its 2017 and 2018 “Dirty Dozen List” of the worst twelve
> corporations in America that perpetuate sexual exploitation.
>
>
>
> Technology exists to allow EBSCO to exclude sexually explicit materials
> from the databases for school children, and it would be relatively
> inexpensive for a corporation as large as EBSCO to apply that technology,
> according to the parents’ lawsuit. EBSCO simply has decided not to use such
> technology, they say.
>
>
>
> The law suit gives a sampling of what parents have found in their
> children’s school databases, provided by EBSCO and the Colorado Library
> Consortium:
>
>
>
>    - a “summer reading list” for children contained many erotic and BDSM
>    (bondage, discipline, sadomasochism) stories, which could be located
>    through as innocent a search as “romance;”
>    - an EBSCO database marketed to school children contained a full-text
>    e-book entitled “Pornography in America: A Reference Handbook,” which
>    contained live url links to a company hosting video pornography and
>    promoting the pornography industry;
>    - benign searches for terms such as “robotics,” “girl’s stories,” “boy
>    stories,” “grade 7 biology,” and “respiration” retrieved hyperlinks to
>    “Lust”, “Bondage,” “Sex Toys,” and “Sexual Positions;”
>    - more than 100 different instances of advertising for one particular
>    large-scale sex toy store;
>    - an allegedly teen website that advises children to use saran wrap to
>    prevent sexually transmitted disease.
>
>
>
> “Children don’t have to be looking for porn,” said Paterson.  “They can
> stumble into it in these EBSCO databases.  Imagine how that might affect
> your grade schooler!”
>
>
>
> “This case also is about corporations obeying the law,” said Heffron.  “It
> is against the law to ply children with pornography.  If the local
> convenience store or movie theatre can’t do it, why should EBSCO and the
> Colorado Library Consortium be allowed to get away with it?”
>
>
>
> The second count of the law suit, alleging a civil conspiracy between EBSCO
> and the Colorado Library Consortium, lists six federal and state statutes
> outlawing sexually explicit materials from being supplied to children.
> These statutes apply two well-established legal standards,
> “obscene-as-to-minors” and “harmful-as-to- minors,” which have withstood
> constitutional challenges. The law suit alleges EBSCO and the Colorado
> Library Consortium agreed, at least tacitly, to violate laws such as these.
>
>
>
> “As one would expect, courts apply a much stricter standard when deciding
> whether to shield children from pornography than they apply when deciding
> cases involving adults” said Heffron.
>
>
>
> The Thomas More Society, and the Colorado parents, find themselves now on
> the forefront of what appears to be shaping up as a national movement of
> parents outraged by pornography in the schools.  The Colorado parents
> demonstrated their EBSCO searches recently to Utah parents, who in turn
> brought to the attention of the Utah Education Network, which immediately
> shut down EBSCO while Utah investigates.
>
>
>
> “EBSCO claims to be in 55,000 schools across the country,” said Heffron.
> “We’re just getting started.”
>
>
>
> In April this year, the Thomas More Society filed a law suit against a
> Chicago public school, *(Wagenmaker et al (parents) v. Kenner et al.
> (Whitney Young administrators
> <https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/COUR.Complaint.EmergencyInjunctive.Relief.2018-04-16.FILED_.pdf>**),
> *forcing the school to cancel sexual education instruction for 7th
> through 12th graders by a sex columnist,  whose extensive online articles
> advocated casual hook-up sex, pornography use, and other risky sexual
> behaviors.
>
>
>
>
>
> In the Colorado case, the Society is associated in this case with attorney
> Theresa L. Sidebotham, of Telios Law, Monument, Colorado, whose law
> practice regularly includes advising organizations on how to protect
> children, particularly those harmed by sexual abuse.
>
>
>
> Read the Complaint, *Pornography is Not Education v. EBSCO Industries,
> Inc. and Colorado Library Consortium, *filed by the Thomas More Society
> at the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on October 10, 2018,
> here
> <https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EBSCO-2018-10-10-Filed-Complaint.pdf>
> [
> https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EBSCO-2018-10-10-Filed-Complaint.pdf
> ]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> George Machovec
>
> Executive Director
>
> Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries
>
> 3801 E. Florida Ave., Suite 515
>
> Denver, CO  80210
>
> (303) 759-3399 x.101
>
> (303) 759-3363 (fax)
>
> https://www.coalliance.org
>
>
>
> --
> *Diedre Conkling*
> *diedre08 at gmail.com* <diedre08 at gmail.com>
>
> “If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change
> your attitude.”―Maya Angelou
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-- 
Danielle Jones
*Oregon Library Association ALA Chapter Councilor*
*Teen and youth librarian at Multnomah County Library*
*My pronouns are she, her, hers*
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