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Federal judges reject online porn law
Posted by Kevin Chen on Friday, May 31 @ 11:39:53 EDT Civil Liberties
Article from MSNBC:

Three federal judges on Friday threw out a federal law that would have forced public libraries to equip computers with software designed to block access to Internet pornography.

IN A 195-PAGE DECISION, the judges said the Children’s Internet Protection Act went too far because it also blocking access to sites that contained protected speech.

“Any public library that adheres to CIPA’s conditions will necessarily restrict patrons access to a substantial amount of protected speech in violation of the First Amendment,” the judges wrote.

The law would have required public libraries to install the filters or risk losing federal funding starting July 1. It had been widely criticized by First-Amendment groups.

The judges, who heard nearly two weeks of testimony in April, wrote that they were concerned that library patrons who wanted to view sites blocked by filtering software might be embarrassed or lose their right to remain anonymous because they would have to ask permission to have the sites unblocked.

The filtering software blocked substantial amounts of protected speech “whose suppression serves no legitimate government interest,” the judges wrote.

Any appeal of the decision by 3rd U.S. Circuit Judge Edward R. Becker and U.S. District judges John P. Fullam and Harvey Bartle III would go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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"User's Login" | Login/Create an Account | 3 comments
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Re: Federal judges reject online porn law (Score: 1)
by anthony_dipierro on Friday, May 31 @ 12:03:24 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://slashdotsucks.com/
Is it just me, or is this post a blatant copyright violation?


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Expert report documenting 6000+ overblocking errors (Score: 1)
by BenEdelman on Friday, May 31 @ 16:47:57 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/edelman.html
I worked on this case as an expert for the library plaintiffs and for the ACLU, and I thought folks here on lawmeme might be interested in my expert report.

The brunt of my research was documenting some 6000+ examples of overblocking -- blocking of sites that weren't consistent with respective filtering programs' blocking definitions and policies.

My report is available at
    http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/edelman/mul-v-us


Ben Edelman

Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Harvard Law School


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