Do you guys remember the Live From The COPA Trial blog Hooksexup ran a few years back?
Word just came in from Will Doig, our Editor-In-Chief, that Hooksexup, Salon, and other websites have won their ACLU-led free speech fight against the dangerous Child Online Protection Act, after years of appeals and other legal wrangling by the government...
Tonight, we'll be rounding up the neighborhood children, strapping them to the chairs, and prying their eyes open to see unquestionable filth like Victoria's Secret, Barack Obama.com, and the "penis balloons" tag on Scanner, all of which will surely damage them for life. Okay, we're kidding, but we'll definitely be celebrating our glorious victory, which is in no small part thanks to testimony by defendent and Hooksexup CEO, Rufus Griscom...
One ACLU lawyer writes in:
We won! The Third Circuit has affirmed the district court finding that COPA is unconstitutional.
According to Wikipedia:
On March 22, 2007, U.S. District Judge Lowell A. Reed, Jr. once again struck down the Child Online Protection Act,[7] finding the law facially violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Reed issued an order permanently enjoining the government from enforcing COPA, commenting that "perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection."[8] The government again appealed, and the case is now before the Third Circuit.[9]
COPA... is a law in the United States of America, passed in 1998 with the declared purpose of protecting minors from harmful sexual material on the Internet. The federal courts have ruled that the law violates the constitutional protection of free speech, and therefore have blocked it from taking effect. Several US states have since passed similar laws.
The law was part of a series of efforts by US lawmakers legislating over Internet pornography. Parts of the earlier and much broader Communications Decency Act had been struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court; COPA was a direct response to that decision, narrowing the range of material covered. COPA only limits commercial speech and only affects providers based within the United States.
We'll have more on this emerging story, including an interview with an ACLU lawyer, in the very near future...