Previous Politech message: "More on did Supreme Court truly overturn 'morphed' kiddie porn ban?" http://www.politechbot.com/p-03403.html
--- Subject: RE: Did Supreme Court really overturn "morphed" kiddie porn ban? Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 14:39:29 -0700 From: "Clinton D. Fein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hi Declan: As you must have already seen by now, the vast majority of headlines covering these issues have intimated that the Supreme Court indeed struck down CPPA. The cat is out of the bag, I'm afraid. While Paul McMasters correctly points out the fact that only the challenged provisions were struck down, and that the unchallenged ones remain enforceable and applicable, the fine details don't make for sensational -- or concise -- enough headlines. The same is true of the CDA, core provisions of which were challenged, were struck down by the Supreme Court in Reno v. ACLU, while other challenges -- such as ApolloMedia v. Reno were upheld by the Supreme Court (albeit interpreted to apply to obscenity only.) Of course, additional provisions of the CDA remain in full force, such as the "good Samaritan" provision which was still left standing, as evidenced by the ruling in the Zeran v. America Online, Inc. case - a very important one in the defamation area. A similar ruling was made in favor of AOL by the trial court in the Blumenthal v.Drudge case in the area of libel. There are also other CDA provisions remaining and enforceable that significantly impact privacy and Press. In April 2000, a web site, about.com, revived the still existing provision of the Communications Decency Act that ApolloMedia argued should be "struck down" in the annoy.com case to issue subpoenas to various ISPs around the country in an effort to unmask an Internet user. (see http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/cyber/cyberlaw/21law.html ) While it may seem pedantic, headlines such as "Supreme Court Strikes Down CDA" or "Child Pornography Prevention Act overturned by High Court" sometimes have unintended consequences. I know for instance, I spent more than a fair share of time trying to explain to people that vigilance in the fight for free speech online should remain, as many had taken the headlines at face value. A very energized audience that had galvanized as a result of Blue Ribbon campaigns, your list and numerous other efforts, lost many willing supporters who falsely assumed the battle was over, and had been won -- rather than the first round. While some journalists have been quick to appreciate the distinctions, others have countered that in the confines of a piece of journalism, even in a legal publication, there is simply not enough room to mention such facts and that most sophisticated readers know that most facial attacks focus on portions of a statute, and not the entire law. Understanding the law, let alone trying to comply with it is difficult enough. Already in the short space of time since the Supremes ruled on the CPPA provisions, you can see the usefulness of such headlines for organizations such as the American Family Association (such as BBC's "US court quashes child porn law" or Christian Science Monitor's "High court allows virtual-child pornography") as a fund raising mechanism to continue to attack free speech. It's quite amazing how the presence or absence of a couple of words "core provisions" or "challenged provisions" can make such a remarkable difference. Clinton _____________________________________ Clinton Fein President ApolloMedia Corporation 370 7th Street, Suite 6 San Francisco, CA 94103 Phone: 415-552-7655 Fax: 415-552-7656 http://apollomedia.com/ _____________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sign this pro-therapeutic cloning petition: http://www.franklinsociety.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------
