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Child Porn Law Debated in Court

Premgenius   on 09 January 2004 - 13:52 · 19 comments & 4102 views

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Blocking access to websites doesn't interfere with free speech because Internet addresses aren't real, according to the Pennsylvania attorney general's office.

State attorneys opposing a challenge to the Pennsylvania law that requires ISPs to block access to websites containing child pornography argued to a Philadelphia federal court this week that "a URL is neither a person, nor a real forum, nor a limited commodity."

"It is a little string of letters and numbers that acts as a superficial label," they argued in a brief. "Disablement of an ISP's customers' access to a particular URL for even an indefinite time does not implicate First Amendment rights."

News source: Wired News

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#1 Ruciz on 08 Aug 2009 - 00:49
not that I support child pornography, I feel it should be eliminated like a deadly disease - but thats not going to happen.. but on a larger scale whats to stop ISPs from creating a Chinese internet where everything is censored and watchdogs are monitoring your every keystroke and mouse click? If they block child porn whats to stop them from blocking other websites too?? It impedes the service, and likley breaks a lot of contracts Pennsylvania ISPs have for gouging their customers. Limit access to sites, even one, is grounds for getting out of the contract. Technically a discount should be applied as its not 'full' service.

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