Attempt to overturn web obscenity law fails
March 22nd 2006, 14:16 Jeff Sela
Bad news for those fighting Bush's war on porn: the Supreme Court in the US has refused to overturn (via Graydancer) a ruling on the Communications Decency Act (CDA).
The part of the CDA which was being challenged concerns obscene material published on the web. I don't claim to understand the legal ins and outs of this, but apparently it means that the Miller test can be used to judge whether web content is obscene. Miller relies on ‘community standards’, so publishing saucy pictures on the web from anywhere in the US could get you in trouble if you're taken to caught in a more conservative area.
Sex shops and street prostitutes have always run up against communities who don't want ‘this kind of thing in our backyard’. The Internet, though, is in everyone's backyard. Obscenity law needs to take a wider view to regulate online content in a reasonable way.
Mr. Sugar's suggestion about challenging the Miller test makes even more sense after this, but I can't see it happening any time soon.
