[Infowarrior] - Web censorship law may come out of hibernation

[Richard Forno]

Web censorship law may come out of hibernation
November 19, 2006 11:59 AM PST
http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-6137051.html?tag=nefd.top

In 1998, the U.S. Congress enacted a sweeping Web censorship law that nearly
everyone promptly forgot about.

Why? The explanation is simple: The American Civil Liberties Union
immediately filed a lawsuit to block the U.S. Justice Department, and a
federal judge granted an injunction barring prosecutors from enforcing the
law. That injunction has been in place ever since.

But now that could change. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Lowell A. Reed,
Jr. in Philadelphia will hear closing arguments in the Child Online
Protection Act case, and a ruling is expected by early 2007.

It's unlikely that Reed will lift the injunction, but it is possible. The
case has already gone up to the U.S. Supreme Court once, at which point the
justices asked Reed to evaluate whether the effectiveness of blocking
software had changed in the last few years--a crucial question on which much
of the case hinges. (That's because the ACLU argues filterware is a less
restrictive means than a Net-censorship law.)

If Reed sides with the Bush administration, mainstream Web publishers will
have plenty to worry about.

COPA makes it a federal crime to knowingly post Web pages that have sexually
explicit material that's "harmful to minors." Violators could be fined up to
$50,000 and imprisoned for up to six months.

That affects far more than just porn producers--even news organizations
publishing articles and videos that could be deemed "harmful to minors"
might be in trouble.

Plaintiffs in the ACLU's forgotten lawsuit include the American Booksellers
Foundation for Free Expression, Salon.com, bookstores and a
now-mostly-defunct group called the Internet Content Coalition. (Members of
the ICC include News.com publisher CNET Networks, MSNBC, Sony Online, The
New York Times and Time, Inc.)

There's no guarantee that judges will strike down laws like this one (or
even keep them on ice indefinitely). Just last week, the Florida Supreme
Court upheld a state version of COPA that restricted e-mail that could be
deemed "harmful to minors." Web publishers, take note.