Court Rebuffs Porn Law

The US Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by the Justice Department to uphold the Communications Decency Act. The law, first put into place in 1998, was intended to force adult-oriented sites to use logins or payment to prevent unintentionally exposing children to sexual material. The Supreme Court has ruled the law unconstitutional for violating free speech rights by dictating too broadly how site owners present their content.

Imposing the restriction would affect as many as 700 million US sites and could have forced many of these owners to either pay fines up to $50,000 per day or endure six-month prison sentences, according to government lawyers criticizing the appeal.

Advocates of screening adult websites have instead suggested alternatives such as automatic but not necessarily government-backed content filters at the Internet provider level.

By Electronista Staff

Post tools:

TAGS :  

industry, networking, Supreme Court