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Prehistoric anti-porn law declared unconstitutional
A federal judge has ruled that the Child Online Protection Act, which would have criminalized much of the sexual content on the Internet, violates First and Fifth Amendment rights. The 1998 U.S. law included both civil and criminal penalties for those who make sexually explicit materials freely available on the Web. U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed Jr., who presided over the trial involving several online publications and the American Civil Liberties Union, ruled that COPA is "impermissibly vague and overbroad" to be constitutional, and that there are other less-restrictive means available for protecting children from content deemed inappropriate. In addition, Reed said, the law would undoubtedly "chill a substantial amount of constitutionally protected speech for adults." Good news, though it's absurd that an internet porn law from nine years ago is still bouncing around the courts. Hasn't the problem of ascii pr0n on gopher pretty much resolved itself?
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Remember COPA? Me neither, until this news item showed up today.