Federal Judge Blocks Internet Porn Law
In 1998, Congress enacted the Child Protection Act, which made it a crime for an website operator to permit those under 17 to access sexually explicit material posted on the site.
Today, a federal judge in Philadelphia ruled the law unconstitutional.'
In a detailed decision, Senior U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed Jr. found that the Child Online Protection Act would not be effective in protecting children from online pornography, and that parents could shield their children by using software filters and other, less restrictive means that do not curtail adults' rights to free speech.
You can read the 84 page opinion here (pdf).
The ACLU declares victory.
More...
This challenge to Internet censorship in ACLU v. Gonzales (originally ACLU v. Reno, then ACLU v. Ashcroft) began in October 2006. The law threatened draconian criminal sanctions, with penalties of up to $50,000 per day and up to six months imprisonment, for sites presenting online material acknowledged as valuable for adults but judged "harmful to minors." Clients included a broad coalition of writers, artists and health educators with a diverse Web presence.
Patricia Nell Warren, one of the ACLU's plaintiffs on the case, blogs about how enforcement of the COPA laws will personally affect her:
"If the law is found enforceable...My body of work, which I have spent 35 years creating and publishing, could disappear in the blink of an eye."
The ACLU has more on today's decision here.
Update: More on the decison here.
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