Appeal Filed To SC To Reinstate Online Porn Law
 

Court Urged to Reinstate Online Porn Law

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has appealed to the Supreme Court to reinstate a law that punishes Web site operators who expose children to dirty pictures and other inappropriate material.

The court has already sided with the government once this year in its war against online smut, ruling that Congress can require public libraries that receive federal funding to equip computers with anti-pornography filters.

In an appeal filed Monday, Solicitor General Theodore Olson said the filter technology alone is not enough. Children are "unprotected from the harmful effects of the enormous amount of pornography on the World Wide Web," he told justices.

The broader law at issue now requires that operators of commercial Internet sites use credit cards or some form of adults-only screening system to ensure children cannot see material deemed harmful to them. Operators could face fines and jail time for not complying.

Critics contend the law violates the rights of adults to see or buy what they want on the Internet.

Olson said the main target was commercial pornographers who use sexually explicit "teasers" to lure customers.

A Philadelphia-based appeals court has twice ruled that the 1998 law, known as the Child Online Protection Act, unconstitutionally restricts speech. The law has been on hold since it was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) on behalf of artists, book stores and others who put information on the Web.

The Supreme Court has reviewed the law once. The justices were splintered in a 2002 ruling that sent the case back to the court in Philadelphia for more consideration of the First Amendment implications.

Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard Law School professor who specializes in Internet law, said Tuesday that the high court will likely struggle again with what to do. "From the government's view, it can't hurt to appeal because it's essentially a roulette wheel," he said.

Zittrain predicted that the government will have a tougher time than it did persuading the high court to uphold the library filter law. The government argued in its filing that the cases are similar.

ACLU associate legal director Ann Beeson said the laws are very different because the 1998 statute involves criminal penalties for people who exercise free speech rights.

"I would have thought the Justice Department (news - web sites) would have better things to do with its time than to defend what is clearly an unconstitutional law," she said.

The case is Ashhahahahaha v. ACLU, 03-218.

good we dont need people at librarys to look at porn

This is the other law. Sounds like they're referring to TGP's.

Just what the fuck does THAT have to do with this case? Libraries already put filters on the kiddie 'puters.

KRL do you donate to the ACLU? Thimking of splitting my new donation idea for my Acacia solution 50/50 with the impa and the aclu...

man i hope the .xxx domains go into use.. i got alot of good one's :thumbsup

The 1st Amdendment would have to be edited out of the Constitution.

Huh?

You cant go into a school and start screaming your agenda at the top of your lungs...

You cant walk into the goverment building and screem your agenda...

Why would segragating porn to a .xxx domain be against first rights ammendments...

So every picture with anyone naked on it should be protected with creditcards or any other age-verification? Is that wat they mean or did i get it wrong?

If i understood that right I have no ways to express my feelings.

The internet isn't a school, nor is it a Government building.

Try again.

didnt Visa themselves put an end to this when they let it be known that they wont be used for 'age verification services'???

thumbsup

Why do you hate America?

luring customers is called advertising :1orglaugh

well, .xxx currently belong to New Net ( or something similiar )
and the huge majority of ppl cannot access them.
It's not an ICANN domain, it belongs to a system that should be an alternative to ICANN, but rather failed.
So, if anywhere .xxx are going to be introduced, you will not be able keep your good names.

But IMO the introduction of .xxx names under ICANN is VERY unlikely.

First of all, it would be very difficult to implement the rule that there can not be adult content on "normal" domains ( such as .com or .info )

Second, even if it's implemented, there will always be the country code domains that are not of control of the US administration and geaorge Bush cannot decide if there's a tgp at freesex.nl


:2 cents: