Appeals Court Rules On Internet Obscenity Standards 697
dark_requiem writes "The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that online content can be judged by the standards of the strictest community that is able to access it. The court upheld the conviction of pornography producer Paul F. Little, aka Max Hardcore, for violating obscenity laws in Tampa, despite the fact that the 'obscene' material in question was produced and sold in California. From the article: 'The Atlanta-based court rejected arguments by Little's attorneys that applying a local community standard to the Internet violates the First Amendment because doing so means material can be judged according to the standards of the strictest communities. In other words, the materials might be legal where they were produced and almost everywhere else. But if they violate the standards of one community, they are illegal in that community and the producers may be convicted of a crime. ... Jurors in Little's trial were told to judge the materials on the basis of how "the average person of the community as a whole — the Middle District of Florida" — would view the material.'"
The result is (Score:3, Funny)
That pictures of women who are not covered top to toe are considered porn.
I am sure thare are some communities of strict muslims in the US.
As a result, all newsstands must be closed down, and all newspapers will have to show pictueres only of men.
Stupidity rulez
Re:So Iran's standards then? (Score:5, Funny)
It's really humourous when you live on the same Continent and watch with complete confusion as their entire country sues itself to death. I truly can't believe how litigious their society has become.
If I were American I'd sue you for saying that
I agree (Score:3, Funny)
The onus should fall upon the pornographers to keep their content out of Florida's tubes.
The First Amendment (*) (Score:4, Funny)
We clearly all forgot that little footnote in the Bill of Rights which says "not a guarantee, void where prohibited by law, some rights sold separately"
Re:So Iran's standards then? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:"The Community" (Score:3, Funny)
You can do that? (Score:3, Funny)
On my tiny sovereign island nation, it is now prohibited to be wrong on the internet. I expect the court of Atlanta to pay the standard fine within two weeks of this message.
Re:So Iran's standards then? (Score:3, Funny)
It's not my fault the summary was written poorly
You could always try reading the article.
Wow, they're strict! (Score:5, Funny)
We just need to file a lawsuit in Fascistville, Texas to have the whole internet taken down for obscenity. Trust me, I'm a Texan--we've got plenty of towns that would do.
They're so strict they don't even allow proportionally spaced fonts!
Very strict about polygamy . . . (Score:5, Funny)
"The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that online content can be judged by the standards of the strictest community that is able to access it.
Well, here in my parts, we are pretty damned strict about polygamy . . .
. . . so change your monogamous ways, or be sued by me . . .
. . . oh, and yes, my family tree has routing loops . . .
Re:So Iran's standards then? (Score:3, Funny)
In the real world, the only limit on any government's reach is how many guns it has, and how many guns everybody else has.
I think that it might also be limited by the light cone [wikipedia.org] too.
Re:So Iran's standards then? (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, but this is about what they can view in their homes. By having this available, you're forcing them to run the risk of accidentally visiting those sites. After all, hardcoreporn.com is so easy to mistype when you meant naturescenes.com, since the keys are so close together after all.
Bullish on Amish (Score:3, Funny)
This is great news for the Amish legal community. I expect lots of calls to Amish attorneys to try these kinds of cases by the standards of the average Amishman or Mennonite.
Of course, they'll have to get a computer first.
Re:perl (Score:4, Funny)
You'd let anybody have the wonders of perl? You would cast perl's before swine?
(Perl's code, that is)
Re:So Iran's standards then? (Score:4, Funny)
... why the 1600s? Fuck if I know..
Maybe because that's the beginning of science as we know it? What with Galileo (1564 to 1642) [wikipedia.org], Rene Descarte (1596 – 1650) [wikipedia.org], Leibnitz (1646 - 1716)) [wikipedia.org], and Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626) [wikipedia.org] being from that era. Heck, maybe to them the Roman Inquisition [wikipedia.org] are the good old days?
Good ol' misread... (Score:2, Funny)
Appeals Court Rules On Internet Obesity Standards?