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FC: Courts strike down New York and Georgia Net-censorship laws (fwd)



Hallo, 

zwei weitere Urteile aus den USA, dass der Communication
Decency Act einzelner Bundesstaaten verfassungswidrig ist.
Hier entschieden für New York und Georgia.
Die Urteile wurden von Bundesgerichten gefaellt.

Rigo

Volltext der Meldung, fuer die, die es interessiert.




>Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 16:59:23 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Declan McCullagh <declan@pathfinder.com>
>Subject: FC: Courts strike down New York and Georgia Net-censorship laws
(fwd)
>To: gilc-plan@gilc.org
>Reply-To: gilc-plan@gilc.org
>Errors-To: list-admin@gilc.org
>
>If you're not on it already, y'all should subscribe to f-c; instructions
>are at the end. --D
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>X-FC-URL: Fight-Censorship is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/fc/
>Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 13:49:06 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
>Sender: owner-fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu
>To: fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu
>Subject: FC: Courts strike down New York and Georgia Net-censorship laws
>
>Two Federal courts ruled today in separate decisions
>that state laws in New York and Georgia restricting
>speech on the Internet are unconstitutional.
>
>In a 62-page ruling, Judge Loretta Preska of
>Manhattan's Federal district court struck down a New
>York state Net-censorship law that restricted online
>material that might be "harmful to minors," saying
>that a single state couldn't pass laws that apply to
>the entire Internet.
>
>"The Internet may well be the premiere technological
>innovation of the present age," Preska said. "Judges
>and legislators faced with adapting existing legal
>standards to the novel environment of cyberspace
>struggle with terms and concepts that the average
>American five-year old tosses about with breezy
>familiarity."
>
>In Georgia, Judge Marvin Shoob ruled that a state law
>forbidding anonymity online is unconstitutional since
>it violates free speech and free association rights.
>The law is so broadly written, the judge indicated,
>that even America Online screen names could be
>considered illegal.
>
>This represents a stunning victory for the American
>Civil Liberties Union (http://www.aclu.org/), which
>filed both lawsuits. Judge Shoob "understood clearly
>the very strong need for our plaintiffs to communicate
>anonymously," the ACLU's Ann Beeson says. Both judges
>issued preliminary injunctions barring the state
>attorneys general from enforcing the laws.
>
>But the rulings differ in important ways. Manhattan's
>Judge Preska did not answer whether the New York law
>violated the First Amendment, saying she was going to
>wait for the U.S. Supreme Court's to rule on the
>Communications Decency Act. She said, however, that
>she didn't *need to answer* that question to strike
>down the law since it violated the U.S. Constitution's
>ban on states attempts to regulate commerce outside
>their borders.
>
>This is an vital point: The court ruled that no state,
>no matter how hard the legislators try, generally can
>regulate "indecent" or "harmful to minors" material
>online. "I cannot stretch enough the importance of
>this conclusion," Beeson says. These rulings mean that
>the ACLU's attempts to strike down other state
>Net-censorship laws -- and around two dozen states
>have passed or are considering such measures -- will
>be a virtual slam dunk.
>
>Georgia's Judge Shoob, in a shorter 21-page opinion,
>ruled that the law -- that the Democrat-controlled
>legislature passed in haste last year to muzzle
>a dissident Republican representative -- violated
>the First Amendment.
>
>This echoes a recent Supreme Court case, McIntyre v.
>Ohio, in which the justices ruled that the right to
>anonymity extends beyond political speech; that
>requiring someone to add their name to a leaflet is
>unconstitutional; that writing can be more effective
>if the speaker's identity is unknown.
>
>Next stop: The Supreme Court, which is almost certain
>to rule on the CDA next week...
>
>-Declan
>
>More info on the Georgia lawsuit:
>
>  http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/editorial/0,1012,590,00.html
>
>More info on the New York state lawsuit:
>
>  http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/editorial/0,1012,532,00.html
>
>  http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/editorial/0,1012,811,00.html
>
>
>
>
>
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