ACLU takes COPA back to court.
The Child Online Protection Action (COPA) is being challenged in court again by the ACLU in Philadelphia. The COPA, originally passed in 1998 hasn't been able to be enforced because of challenges against it as well as a federal appeals court ruling that it was unconstitutional. The DOJ hasn't stopped pushing for it. If the Internet were a book, I'm sure the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, would have it at the top of the burning pile.
While there is certainly inappropriate material on the web that children shouldn't have access to, the COPA is too broad and ambiguous as well as being a nightmare to manage. There are already obscenity laws that govern a large portion of what the COPA is trying to stop, but the COPA goes too far. The COPA also suggests Credit Cards as being one method to limit access to Adults. Well, my 5 year old already knows what a credit card is and that it is in Daddy's wallet. I can just imagine having to lock up my wallet at night like a gun in a gunsafe. I just might do that, but I'm going to wait till she's a teenager and wants to actually use it.
Here's an excerpt about Subsection 231(e) in a letter from the DOJ regarding the COPA and what can be considered "harmful to minors"
A) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find, taking the material as a whole and with respect to minors, that such material is designed to appeal to or panders to the prurient interest;
(B) depicts, describes, or represents, in a patently offensive way with respect to minors, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual acts, or a lewd exhibition of the genitals or female breast; and
(C) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
Take the book "Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" published in 1748, which was at one time a banned book and is considered Erotic Fiction by the Library of Congress. Easily orderable from Amazon, the book is sexual in nature, and though a bit dated in the vernacular and certainly not of contemporary community standards as identified in paragraph A , might apply to paragraph B based on an interpretation. This book is available as eText from many universities. These sites would have to resort to some sort of adult identification scheme to view such content if it was considered harmful to minors.
Hi Christopher,\nThis is Jennifer from Nerve.com, the online magazine about sex and culture. I couldn't find your e-mail anywhere on your site so I'm leaving this message as a comment. I really enjoyed your blog! It was very informative. I'm writing because Nerve is currently posting a play-by-play blog covering the ACLU vs. Gonzalaz trial, otherwise known as the Child Online Protection Act case. It is very entertaining--you should check it out. Our CEO and publisher at Nerve is one of the plaintiffs for the case and is also one of the writers for the blog. We also took the liberty of posting a link to your blog on the site, along with some other bloggers who are providing coverage of the COPA trial. We would love it if you would consider linking back to our blog--we want as many readers as possible to become informed about the trial. Here's the link to our blog: http://www.nerve.com/nerveblog/nervecopa.aspx?blog...\n\nThank you very much,\nJennifer\n\n-------------------------\nJennifer Waller\nEditorial Intern, Nerve.com\n520 Broadway, Ninth Floor\nNew York, NY 10012\n212-625-9914\nfax 212-625-8929\nJenniferW@nerve.com
