September 19, 2007

COPA ("Child Online Protection Act") Appealed

[Very early echo]

In the Child Online Protection Act ("COPA") case, regarding a US Internet censorship law based on the "harmful to minor" standard, the recent free-speech victory has now been appealed by the US government, according to an ACLU blog post

But clearly, it's far from over. We just received the government's opening brief to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, and even the government admits that it's got its work cut out for it. It will attempt to argue -- again -- that COPA's censoring guidelines are the least speech-restrictive way to keep kids safe from pornography. In other words, the government will argue that this federal law will do a better job keeping smut from your kids than parental guidance and use of Internet filtering software.

Note this may mean another round of censorware arguments where civil-liberties experts will say censorware works and government experts will say censorware doesn't work.

And even more money will go to fees ...

[Update: I misread the ACLU post - the appeal was filed earlier, this is the opening brief]

By Seth Finkelstein | posted in copa | on September 19, 2007 11:59 PM (Infothought permalink)
Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog (Wikipedia, Google, censorware, and an inside view of net-politics) - Syndicate site (subscribe, RSS)

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