Also in the op/ed department, FRC's Cathy Ruse, Senior Fellow for Legal Studies, writes in today's Christian Science Monitor about the recent overturning by the courts of the Child Online Protection Act:
Another federal judge has struck down the Child Online Protection Act. Had it taken effect, the 1998 law would have done one simple thing: require Internet pornographers to verify the age of customers through the use of adult-access codes or credit cards.
Last month, Judge Lowell Reed Jr ruled out even this basic measure of accountability as a violation of the free-speech rights of porn purveyors and their often addicted customers.
Comments (3)
"Had it taken effect, the 1998 law would have done one simple thing: require Internet pornographers to verify the age of customers through the use of adult-access codes or credit cards."
1. What is an 'adult-access code'?
2. Its a very competative industry. Pornographic sites couldn't remain profitable under these conditions - without free-to-view teasers (Covered by the minimal legal area of cencor-boxes), they wouldn't get new customers. Thus, COPA would simply force them to relocate somewhere outside of US jurisdiction.
3. There is still no clear legal definition of porn, which leaves a burred region containing such things as erotic fiction and artwork both modern and classical.
April 2, 2007 4:42 PM | Comment Permalink
While it is true that the first amendment can be set aside for compelling interest, the statute must be narrowly tailored and use the least restrictive method.
The bill was overbroad and therefore not narrowly tailored. But what really did this law was the government's admission at oral argument, that filters would do a better job than COPA.
April 3, 2007 6:07 AM | Comment Permalink
Well I am not anti porn but I do not see any problem with a rights violation when you ask some their age.
Drinking, smoking, and purchasing firearms require age verification, why not buying pron? Firearms are protected by right in the constitution as is the right to free speech.
April 3, 2007 6:58 PM | Comment Permalink