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              | Date: 1999-11-05 
 
 Zensurgesetz COPA & die Moral der Mormonen-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
 
 "Werden wir alle auf die moralischen Standards der
 Bewohner von Utah oder der Amish zurückgeschraubt?" fragt
 sich einer der Richter, die im Revisionsverfahren das US-
 Jugendschutzgesetz COPA zu beurteilen haben. Das
 Verfahren wird jetzt gerade spannend.
 
 
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 ..
 The new U.S. law would make it a federal crime for
 commercial Web site operators to expose children under 17
 to material deemed harmful. Government officials have been
 barred from enforcing it, however, because of a preliminary
 injunction imposed in February by a U.S. district judge who
 said he believed the law might violate the constitutional right
 to free speech under the First Amendment.
 
 Justice Department attorneys who appealed the lower court's
 ruling to the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
 Philadelphia quickly ran into trouble when a three-judge
 appellate panel opened an hour-long hearing to review oral
 arguments in the case.
 
 U.S. Circuit Judge Leonard Garth criticised the law for leaving
 the definition of "harmful" material to contemporary
 community standards.
 
 Garth commented, "It seems to me that in terms of the
 World Wide Web, what the statute contemplates is that we
 would be remitted to the most severe standards, perhaps
 those of Iran or Iraq," where he said that even showing a
 woman's face was considered objectionable.
 
 CEILING SET BY "MOST CONSERVATIVE"? "Are we all
 going to be remitted to the standards of the residents of Utah
 or the Amish community? Isn't it for the most conservative
 community to be the ceiling for the rest of us?" he asked.
 "This one particular aspect gives me great, great trouble, and
 I don't think it's resolved."
 
 The Child Online Protection Act, which represents the latest
 attempt by the Republican-controlled Congress to control
 Internet smut, was signed into law by President Bill Clinton a
 little over a year ago. But the law quickly ran into a court
 challenge from a coalition of Internet-based businesses led
 by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy
 Information Centre and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
 
 Two years ago, a similar coalition persuaded the U.S.
 Supreme Court to strike down the law's forerunner, the 1996
 Communications Decency Act.
 
 Despite assurances that material would be exempt if it had
 redeeming social, artistic or political value, opponents say
 the law could be used by conservative groups to close down
 Web sites devoted to hot-button issues, including gay or
 reproductive rights.
 ...
 Full Story
 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991105/wr/internet_porn_2.html
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 edited by
 published on: 1999-11-05
 comments to office@quintessenz.at
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