Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

internetworkers - Supreme Court punts on web porn law (link)

internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Michael D. Thomas" <mdthomas AT mindspring.com>
  • To: "InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Supreme Court punts on web porn law (link)
  • Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 18:41:09 -0400



For better and worse, it's tough to regulate the Internet.

http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=953509

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that community
standards may be used to shield minors from Internet pornography, but said
other free-speech problems must be resolved before the restrictions in the
federal law can take effect.
<snip/>
The Child Online Protection Act, adopted by Congress and signed by President
Bill Clinton in 1998, requires commercial Web site operators to use credit
cards or adult access systems before allowing Internet users to view material
deemed harmful to minors.
The law has never been enforced. It immediately was challenged on First
Amendment grounds by the American Civil Liberties Union and 17 groups and
businesses, including online magazine publishers and booksellers.

<snip/>

The appeals court specifically objected to how the law defined harmful as
based on the average person in applying "contemporary community standards" and
said it would effectively force all speakers on the Web to abide by the "most
puritan" standards.

<snip/>

In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said community standards would not work
in cyberspace. He said, "The community that wishes to live without certain
material not only rids itself, but the entire Internet of the offending
speech."






  • Supreme Court punts on web porn law (link), Michael D. Thomas, 05/13/2002

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page