[x]Blackmoor Vituperative

Friday, 2007-03-23

Judge rejects law aimed at Internet porn

Filed under: Society — bblackmoor @ 11:42

A federal judge in Philadelphia yesterday ruled against a 1998 U.S. law that makes it a crime for operators of Internet sites to let anyone under 17 have access to sexual material, rebuffing the government’s argument that software filters are ineffective and upholding earlier rulings that the law infringed on free-speech rights.

In a detailed decision, Senior U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed Jr. found that the Child Online Protection Act would not be effective in protecting children from online pornography, and that parents could shield their children by using software filters and other, less restrictive means that do not curtail adults’ rights to free speech.

(from WashingtonPost.com, Judge Rejects Law Aimed at Internet Porn)

I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later: a judge who has a clue about the Internet.