About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

49 Fed. Comm. L.J. 217 (1996-1997)
Pornography Drives Technology: Why Not to Censor the Internet

handle is hein.journals/fedcom49 and id is 235 raw text is: ESSAY Pornography Drives Technology: Why Not to Censor the Internet Peter Johnson* INTRODUCTION Constitutional issues aside, the basic problem with the Communica- tions Decency Act' is its assault on free expression. If enforced, it will stifle the free use of what Judge Dalzell, in ACLUv. Reno, called the most participatory marketplace of mass speech that this country-and indeed the world-has yet seen.2 Some have complained of the Communications Decency Act's overbreadth-that it would cast too wide a net and sweep up not only smut, but also nonprurient discussions of sex, health, AIDS, abortion, and other sex-related public issues This essay, to the contrary, presents head-on the case for smut itself. My contention is that the Communications Decency Act will inhibit the free flow of the very sort of material that has traditionally been a new medium's most popular early use, that is, pornography. Throughout the history of new media, from vernacular speech to movable type, to photography, to paperback books, to videotape, to cable and pay-TV, to 900 phone lines, to the French Minitel, to the Internet, to CD-ROMs and laser discs, pornography has shown technology the way. * Associate, Debevoise & Plimpton; Harvard, B.A. magna cum laude, 1966, M.A.T. 1968; New York Law School, J.D. summa cum laude, 1996. Thanks to Profs. Rudolph Peritz and Michael Botein of New York Law School for comments. 1. Communications Decency Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-104, secs. 501-561, 110 Stat. 133 (to be codified in scattered sections of 47 U.S.C). 2. Reno, 929 F. Supp. 824, 881 (E.D. Pa. 1996). 3. Id. at 852-853.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most