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              | Date: 1998-11-20 
 
 Etappensieg gegen US-Zensurgesetz-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
 
 q/depesche  98.11.20/1
 updating      98.10.17/1
 
 Etappensieg gegen US-Zensurgesetz
 
 Dasselbe Gericht in Philadelphia, das schon im Jahre 1996
 das Vorläufergesetz Communications Decency Amendment
 (CDA) verworfen hatte, hat nun den Nachfolge-
 Schamhaarparagraphen COPA (Child Online Protection Act)
 vorerst einmal für zehn Tage ausser Kraft gesetzt.
 
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 PHILADELPHIA - In the first constitutional test of a new
 Internet censorship law, a federal judge today issued a
 temporary restraining order (TRO) against enforcement of the
 Child Online Protection Act (COPA).  The ruling came in a
 legal challenge to the statute filed by EPIC, the American
 Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation
 on behalf of a broad coalition of Web publishers and users.
 COPA, enacted in the final days of the 105th Congress as
 part of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, imposes criminal
 penalties against any "commercial" website that makes
 material that is "harmful to minors" available to anyone under
 17 years of age.  Unless enjoined, the statute would have
 gone into effect at 12:01 a.m. on November 20.
 
 At the end of an all-day court hearing, U.S. District Judge
 Lowell A. Reed, Jr. enjoined Attorney General Janet Reno
 and the Justice Department from "enforcing or prosecuting"
 any conduct under COPA for at least ten days, until the
 issues in the lawsuit can be further litigated.  Over the
 objections of the government, Judge Reed extended the
 coverage of the TRO to anyone posting material on the World
 Wide Web, not just the named plaintiffs.  The TRO also
 precludes retroactive enforcement of COPA, should the law
 eventually be upheld, for material posted while the restraining
 order is in effect.
 ...
 
 The court ruling is the latest setback for Internet censorship
 proponents.  In June 1996, the same federal court in
 Philadelphia struck down the Communications Decency Act
 (CDA), a decision unanimously upheld last year by the U.S.
 Supreme Court.  In enacting COPA, Congressional
 supporters claimed that the new law corrected the
 constitutional defects of the CDA.  Several federal courts
 have also found state laws seeking to regulate online content
 unconstitutional.
 
 Full text
 http://www.aclu.org/court/acluvrenoII_order.html
 In Depth
 http://www.epic.org/free_speech/copa/tro_brief.html
 
 relayed by
 banisar@epic.org
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 edited by
 published on: 1998-11-20
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