Talk:Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act

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Contents

[edit] Disclaimer?

What does the law say about the dislcaimer? The Jade Knight 04:59, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The First Amendment

Doesn't this blanket-law conflict with the U.S' First Amendment of free speech or self-expression? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.105.19.98 (talk) 22:39, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure that's one argument that will be brought up when the trials currently in progress & pending are taken to appellate courts. -- Kesh —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 23:40, 6 October 2007 (UTC)
It's been held not to violate the First Amendment, and I don't think that argument will go far. The purpose is "compelling" (avoiding child sex exploitation) and the government's approach (requiring proof of age) is narrowly tailored to achieve that purpose. So whatever standard of review applies, the courts aren't likely to find that the law is unreasonable. Also, they might argue that it's not a restriction on the speech but rather a requirement that goes along with the speech; and further that it's not regulating the communication itself but the commercial aspect or the production. We have plenty of laws having to do with how entertainment products are made, e.g. licensing requirements and approvals for public filming. In reality, yes, it is related somehow to a generalized crackdown and disapproval of adult entertainment and it's unduly burdensome on legitimate (i.e. legal) forms of adult entertainment. Just don't expect a court to decide that. Wikidemo 02:02, 13 October 2007 (UTC)
Actually, the "secondary producer" language is what brings this into the 1st Amendment territory. Per the article:

Under the current law, anyone who commercially operates a website or releases sexually explicit images of actual humans, regardless of the format (DVD, photos, books, etc.), is subject to penalties that include up to five years in federal prison per each infraction of the regulations.

Which not only means that any amateur-porn distributor is in trouble, it may conflict with laws protecting internet service providers from responsibility for content posted by their users (on a forum, for instance). Not to mention it suddenly makes the bulk of amateur porn made over the last 50 years or so illegal, since it's going to be effectively impossible to track them all down and get the proper documentation. So, it's not exactly clear-cut. -- Kesh 17:01, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] External links

I'm wondering if the list of companies that provide 2257 software violates the WP:EL policy. Normally we don't have such lists of external links even if they're helpful. The link to the Free Speech Coalition is better because it's a nonprofit industry organization, and they probably link to the software vendors somewhere from their site. I added a link to ASACP because they're active on this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikidemo (talk • contribs) 02:07, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unconstitutional

It belongs in the intro. I can't understand what argument would say otherwise??? Dragons flight 18:11, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

I just commented on your talk page before seeing this, so I'll paste that explanation here:
I removed that section from the intro for two reasons: first, it's redundant with the text further in the article, which is almost identical. Second, this is nowhere near the end of the legal wrangling. I'd lay good money the government will push this all the way up to the Supreme Court, so until something final happens, these decisions aren't intro material. If the government drops its case, then it'd be worth saying right in the intro. -- Kesh 18:13, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
The issue may not be settled until SCOTUS rules (or declines to), but the current status is a major feature that belongs in the intro. Dragons flight 18:14, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Agree with Dragons flight. The current status of a law is very important. Its history may not be, so if this goes to SCOTUS that sentence may end up being moved down, but for now, the fact it was overturned is possibly the most important sentence that can be said about it. --AnonEMouse (squeak) 18:47, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Alright. I'm willing to concede the point. However, we need to do something about it being essentially a duplicate of the text further in the article. The latter needs rewritten to be more substantive, since it wouldn't make too much sense to remove it entirely from that section. Otherwise, it's just redundant in the lead. -- Kesh —Preceding comment was added at 19:31, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Here's an article by a reliable source we can mine for that stuff, Associated Press via the Cincinatti Post: http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071024/NEWS01/710240374 It's also better to have a secondary source in general, rather than just the primary source text of the decision itself. I looked yesterday, but this just wasn't to be found. We probably mention and describe the Connection Distributing Co., and maybe quote from the opinion. A small paragraph should do it. There are juicier articles, like http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9803929-38.html and http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/appeals-court-u.html but they're only marginally "reliable" - they're at least called blogs, even if on somewhat reputable sites. --AnonEMouse (squeak) 19:06, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Facially Invalid

Can someone explain what "facially invalid" means? Does it mean the whole statue becomes invalid, or does it mean, just in this appeal? i.e. what does this new finding actually mean for 2257 recording keeping? Does one have to do it anymore? etc. This should be covered in more depth in the article Bilz0r 10:31, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

IANAL, but my understanding is that it means the statute (or in this case, section 2257) is not a valid law and cannot be enforced. Basically, any court in the 6th District which has a case brought before them on 2257 should throw out the charges based on it. I agree, we should have a short explanation on that, or perhaps an article on the term facially invalid itself, though we might need a lawyer to help draft it properly. -- Kesh 12:35, 26 October 2007 (UTC)