Judge Dumps Child Porn Law

10 Sep, 2004 at 10:16pm ET Article published in Tech

A federal judge threw out on Friday a Pennsylvania law requiring internet service providers to block websites containing child pornography, saying the tools to do so also cause “massive suppression” of constitutionally protected speech.

Enacted in 2002, the law gave Pennsylvania’s attorney general the power to require that companies like America Online block customers from viewing websites the state had identified as containing illegal content. No one challenged the state’s right to stop the distribution of child porn, which is already illegal under federal law, but lawyers for the Center for Democracy and Technology and the American Civil Liberties Union had argued that the technology used to block those websites was clumsy. Much as the phone company can’t control what people fax over phone lines, ISPs can’t control content on the web, and efforts to use sophisticated filters to stop people from seeing illicit sites have proven problematic.

Source: Wired

Comments

11 Sep 2004 ~ 1:48am csimon

A few states -- Arkansas, South Dakota and South Carolina -- address child pornography by requiring ISPs or computer technicians to report any illegal material they discover, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

come on ppl leave kids alone.
12 Sep 2004 ~ 12:26am Komete I tell ya one thing freedom of speach needs to stops pretty damn quick when it involoves abuse of children, Even those fake pictures that look like the real deal needs to be shut down. All that crap incites those child rapest. Thats what they are not molesters but brutal rapest.
12 Sep 2004 ~ 9:54am -Ben While i fully agree all child molesters should be taken out back and shot.

If they did go ahead with this, what's next?

A few states -- Arkansas, South Dakota and South Carolina -- address child pornography by requiring ISPs or computer technicians to report any illegal material they discover, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

This should be made mandatory.
12 Sep 2004 ~ 1:23pm Ol-John I've been using the internet for year since before it was the internet, with an old 286 machine and a 300 baud modem and I've always fought for the freedom from the internet and to keep the censors out of the web business.

I fear that the time for change has finally arrived. Not for just the kiddie porn which should be first on the list but all the other porn sites that are nothing but come ons and ads for lousy paid porn sites, the spammers, the phony ripoff ads and so on.

Maybe I'm just an old fart but the internet has just become overloaded with garbage, garbage and more garbage. I'm not an old prude though by any means I love high quality porn as much as the next guy but it needs to be kept out of the faces of children and children need to be kept out of porn.

The ACLU commies be damned. There are and should be limits to free speech and I say that as a veteran with a red, white and blue fanny. I'm a natural born American, and an old fashioned kinda guy but there are limits to what should be on the internet, now. It's gotten just too out of hand as a whole.

Sadly politicians won't curb spam because it will cost them votes and money. They might curb some porn but not much for the same reason. While some politicians introduce legislation supposedly to curb porn, there'a always that loophole that basically makes the law ineffective.

It's usually a state legislator that encats these things to gain local votes which everybody loves simply because if the ISP or the porn site holder isn't in that state the law is useless and the ISP and siteholder are free as a bird to tell the state "OK you block us in your state but the other 49 are ours so big deal". Most states don't have the technology or the funds to do it anyway.

We've already seen the cowcrap that come out of Washington with regard to SPAM legislation and the spammers are contributing heavily to those campaign funds so we're not likely to see any anti spam legislation come out of Washington for years if ever. The same goes for kiddie porn or any porn for that matter. It's just too big a business and they have too much money to pour into the coffers in Washington for use mere citizens to expect anything significant to come out of Washington until some really sincere campaign financing reforms are put in place.

Simply stated the politicians are elected by the people but don't serve them. They serve the campaign contributors who don't elect them, pure and simple.

Sadly most Americans don't quite realize this yet because they don't even register to vote but they whine the loudest when something goes wrong. They also blame the politicians when something goes wrong too when it was the non voters inaction that put that particular politician in office.

The few old Bible Belt states that do have some legislation on the books is purely ceremonial. It's unfunded to begin with and if the ISP is out of state the state with the legislation can save money on toilet paper by using their list because that's all it's good for.

Plenty of unfunded laws make people feel good and politiicans look good. Other than that their just a waste of paper and those states would have been better off saving a tree instead of wasting paper. Sad but true until more people get off their butts to educate themselves and vote.
13 Sep 2004 ~ 10:56am Gobbles Ive always supported putting all porn related sites on http://xxx.pornsite.com-org-net

kinda of a red light district for the web....

x
14 Sep 2004 ~ 3:28pm EyesOnly

Gobbles wrote:

Ive always supported putting all porn related sites on http://xxx.pornsite.com-org-net

kinda of a red light district for the web....

x

I've heard of that too and it's not really a bad idea. At least then you would know you're on a pornsite even before clicking the link.