About David Burt
Filtering Facts is my website and blog dedicated to all things related to filtering software, including news, technology, Internet safety, legal developments, public policy issues, and the companies that manufacture filtering software. Filtering Facts is designed to serve as both a reference site for those interested in filtering software, as well as a blog focused on breaking news related to filtering software.
Filtering Facts reflects my long-time interest in the promotion of filtering software. I currently work for Microsoft, where I promote security products. I’ve been married since 1995, and we live in Seattle with our 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son.
For more information, see my Wikipedia biography, mirrored below. See also:
David Burt in the News
David Burt Bibliography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Burt is a former librarian and a long time advocate for Internet filtering software. Burt’s research on Internet filtering and the problems associated with unfiltered Internet access have been cited by both the United States Congress and the Supreme Court of the United States in upholding the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)[1].
David Burt earned an undergraduate degree in history and a master of library science from the University of Washington in 1992. He worked for the New York Public Library for three years, then worked at the Lake Oswego (Oregon) Public Library as information technology manager from 1996 to 2000. He has since then worked with filtering software companies, and today runs the Filtering Facts blog.
Filtering Facts 1997-2000
In July 1997, his concern about protecting children from pornography on the Internet led him to start Filtering Facts, a nonprofit organization that encouraged libraries to voluntarily adopt filters.[2] Burt’s advocacy included testifying as an expert witness in the library filtering case Mainstream Loudon v. Board in 1998[3]; before the National Commission on Library and Information Science;[4] as well as state legislatures, city councils, and local library boards. The activism of David Burt was profiled in an article in the New York Times in 1999.[5]
In 1999, David Burt filed over 15,000 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests of public libraries seeking public records documenting incidents of Internet pornography in public libraries[6] Burt compiled the over 2,000 incidents [7] into a report published by the Family Research Council entitled Dangerous Access 2000: Uncovering Pornography in America’s Libraries [8] Dangerous Access 2000 was entered into the Congressional Record [9] in 2000 in support of CIPA, a law Congress passed in 2000 requiring public libraries that receive certain types of federal funding to purchase filtering software.
Promoting the filtering industry and defending CIPA: 2000-2006
In March 2000, David Burt closed Filtering Facts and accepted a job in marketing with the (now defunct) filtering company N2H2. While at N2H2, he continued his work promoting filtering by testifying before the Congressional Commission on Child Online Protection (COPA) in 2000[10] the Department of Commerce[11], and the U.S. Copyright Office in the 2003 DMCA exemption hearings[12]
In 2001 the Department of Justice legal team charged with defending CIPA hired Burt as a consultant. Burt helped identify and recruit most of the witnesses used by the DOJ, and assisted the DOJ in depositions of opposing witnesses.
On June 23, 2003 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of CIPA, specifically citing Burt and Dangerous Access 2000 as justification for Congress passing CIPA:
Congress learned that adults us[e] library computers to access pornography that is then exposed to staff, passersby, and children, and that minors access child and adult pornography in libraries. Footnote 1,(citing D. Burt, Dangerous Access, 2000 Edition: Uncovering Internet Pornography in America’s Libraries (2000)) (noting more than 2,000 incidents of patrons, both adults and minors, using library computers to view online pornography, including obscenity and child pornography).[13]
In 2003, N2H2 was acquired by Secure Computing, which hired Burt to promote Secure Computing’s filtering and other network security products. In 2006, Burt left Secure Computing for his current position promoting network security products in Microsoft’s Security and Access Services Division.
The Filtering Facts Blog 2007 – Present
In November, 2007, Burt reopened the FilteringFacts.org as a blog and reference site about filtering software and internet safety.
References
- ^ United States v. ALA, June 23, 2003 See footnote 1 for both references
- ^ Filtering Facts Archives
- ^ Expert Report of David Burt in Mainstream Loudoun, July 14, 1998
- ^ Testimony of David Burt before the National Commissions on Library and Information Science, Nov. 17, 1998
- ^ Librarian Seeks Evidence of Complaints About Internet Misuse, April 20, 1999 NY Times.
- ^ American Libraries, “Pro-Filtering Crusader Blankets States with FOIA Requests” – June 28, 1999.
- ^ The over 2,000 incidents are transcribed from the FOIA requests here
- ^ David Burt, ‘Dangerous Access 2000′
- ^ (prepared statement of Bruce Taylor). The Children’s Internet Protection Act: Hearing on S. 97 before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, 106th Cong., 1st Sess., 49 (1999)
- ^ Testimony of David Burt, Child Online Protection Act Commission, July 20, 2000
- ^ Transcript of oral testimony of David Burt, The Kids.US Internet Domain Forum, Department of Commerce, NTIA, July 14, 2005
- ^ Testimony of David Burt, Copyright Office, April 11, 2003
- ^ United States v. ALA, June 23, 2003
© 2007, David Burt & Filtering Facts
