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Interesting...
Mar. 22nd, 2007 03:35 pmCourt strikes down Internet porn law
From CNN.com
A federal judge on Thursday dealt another blow to government efforts to control Internet pornography, striking down a 1998 U.S. law that makes it a crime for commercial Web site operators to let children access "harmful" material. In the ruling, the judge said parents can protect their children through software filters and other less restrictive means that do not limit the rights of others to free speech.
( Full text of story here )
Summary: The internet is not a babysitter, and it's the parents' job to limit kids' access to porn and other "harmful" material -- and not the responsibility of the owner of the website.
So what does this mean for fandom? Clearly there's no legal obligation (in the US, at least) to password protect your adult fan fiction or art in a futile attempt to keep minors from accessing it. If the ruling stands, will LJ change the TOS to reflect it? (As an aside, I do know that written material isn't technically considered "pornography" in the US, but the vagueness of the term "harmful material" has caused me to wonder in the past couple of years if fiction or podcasts could be included under that law. Hopefully it's a moot point now.)
Oh, and I'm not a lawyer by any means, so people with more knowledge of this stuff than me (*coughs*![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
heidi8, chaeche *coughs*) please feel free to add some insights!
From CNN.com
A federal judge on Thursday dealt another blow to government efforts to control Internet pornography, striking down a 1998 U.S. law that makes it a crime for commercial Web site operators to let children access "harmful" material. In the ruling, the judge said parents can protect their children through software filters and other less restrictive means that do not limit the rights of others to free speech.
( Full text of story here )
Summary: The internet is not a babysitter, and it's the parents' job to limit kids' access to porn and other "harmful" material -- and not the responsibility of the owner of the website.
So what does this mean for fandom? Clearly there's no legal obligation (in the US, at least) to password protect your adult fan fiction or art in a futile attempt to keep minors from accessing it. If the ruling stands, will LJ change the TOS to reflect it? (As an aside, I do know that written material isn't technically considered "pornography" in the US, but the vagueness of the term "harmful material" has caused me to wonder in the past couple of years if fiction or podcasts could be included under that law. Hopefully it's a moot point now.)
Oh, and I'm not a lawyer by any means, so people with more knowledge of this stuff than me (*coughs*
heidi8, chaeche *coughs*) please feel free to add some insights!
