COPA Suffers Yet Another Court Defeat

A US federal appeals court today struck down COPA, the Child Online Protection Act, a Clinton-era censorship law that the Justice Department has been struggling to get implemented for a decade. (The ACLU filed suit as soon as COPA was signed in 1998 and won an immediate injunction.) The battle has made it to the Supreme Court twice, and the DoJ has essentially never gotten any satisfaction out of the courts. This was the case for which the DoJ famously went trolling for search histories. In the ruling issued today, the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling that COPA violates the First Amendment because it is not the most effective way to keep children from visiting adult Web sites. The law would require sites to check visitors' ages, e.g. by taking a credit card, if the site contained any material that is "harmful to minors," whatever that means.

What!

[MightyMartian]

But it's for the children!!!!

BUSH = HITLER

[Anonymous Coward]

Another stunning blow to the Bush administration and their complete disregard for our civil liber...

a Clinton-era censorship law

Oh. Never mind. I'll just go back to my job at the New York Times now.

Re:Good

[Smackheid]

Careful son, that's commie talk.

Get off my credit card!

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally. Now my children don't have to keep bugging me for my credit card when they want to visit adult sites.

Re:What!

[Shadow Wrought]

-1 Redunant on a first post is a pretty impressive feat.

Children haters.

Re:What!

[digitrev]

Fuck the children!

Re:What!

[digitrev]

Pen island [penisland.net]. Who represents [whorepresents.com]. Please, hold your applause.

Re:What!

[n dot l]

Fuck the children!

George Carlin [youtube.com] FTW.

Re:What!

[stuntmanmike]

Yeah, it was pretty funny. At least, it was until you explained it.

Don't be that guy.

Re:Good

[strelitsa]

If a child is receiving pressure to have sex too early, is that a sexual harassment pander?

Hey!

[realmolo]

My children ARE porn stars, you insensitive clod!

Love,
Chris Matthews

Re:What!

[antdude]

"Why don't you have a seat over there?" [yahoo.com]

Well then

[phorm]

I didn't know that Michael Jackson had a slashdot account?

Re:Good

[KGIII]

I was in court (defending my brother vs. an OUI or, really, just getting him a good plea bargain and a ride home) when I watched Maine's "open countainer" law get trashed. The guy defended himself and brought a beer can out of his pocket and asked the DA to read the part he'd shown him. "Maine 5c Deposit" (or something similar) was the response. He then asked the judge, "There's always a little bit left in the bottle. How are we supposed to return them to the store?" His case was dismissed as his BAC was only .02 or something when he was arrested.