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Oregon's New Censorship Law Challenged In Court
MachineShedFred writes "A lawsuit has been filed against all the county District Attorneys as well as the Attorney General of Oregon to block enforcement of a new law that restricts the sale of 'sexually explicit' material to people under the age of 18. Powell's Books (who claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world) as well as Dark Horse Comics (publisher of Frank Miller graphic novels) as well as many other bookstores claim that the new law would be impossible for these businesses to comply with. 'Powell's has in stock over 2 million volumes constituting over 1 million titles,' Michael Powell said in his affidavit. 'We receive on an average over 5,000 new titles per week. Obviously we cannot read each new title to determine whether there are any sexual explicit portions and if so whether such portions "serve some purpose other than titillation" (even if I knew what that meant).'"
Ahh Oregon, how I love thee,
since I obviously can't look after myself,
I really appreciate that you are looking out for me,
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
makes it a crime to provide sexually explicit material to a child through sales or viewing, if the material was meant to "satisfy a sexual desire."
That means most novels including many great works of literature are banned, think of what would be banned if the law was expanded to tv too.
Hasn't written material traditionally been exempt from obscenity laws?
Not really. Wikiepedia has a whole section on "non image based obscenity" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obscenity
The comedian Lenny Bruce was prosecuted in the 50s and 60s for merely speaking about "forbidden" topics at nightclubs. Just recently there's an internet site that published text stored "red rose stories" that was raided by the freaking FBI. There's a ton more. The Red Rose Stories prosecution case is scheduled to start soon.
So no, if you think this is about image based porn "obscenity", you're very wrong.
AccountKiller
[offtopic]
We are no longer allowed to buy studded tires for our cars.
interesting. i live in pdx, and it's difficult to find an SUV without studs. and we get no snow. i've always wanted studs to be allowable only to those in areas that get snow, based on your registration address. ODOT says that they're still legal, and they are legal here in portland, are you sure that it's not just a local thing that they are blaming on portland?
Even to this valley native it's clear that there is good cause to have different rules for the different geographic areas of the state.
Studded tires are a great example. In my opinion, they should be made permit-only for any vehicle registered at an address at less than 1000' elevation, with a gratis automatic permit for any address at or over 1000'. But I guess that's too easy for the legislature.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
My only beef with Powell's is that I spend too much money whenever I go there. Last time I was there I dropped about $500 at the main store, then about $500 more at the technical store. I particularly like the fact that the technical store is all kinds of technical stuff. The "technical" sections in the bookstores here (Vancouver) are 99% computer stuff, with a handful of pop science books.
I've heard of people who take vacations in Portland for the express purpose of shopping at Powell's. Sure, I can get just about anything I want through Amazon, but there is still no substitute for browsing the shelves to see what you can find.
I think I feel another Powell's trip coming on. I always stop at Boeing Surplus (Seattle) on the way back. Sometimes all they have is just plain junk, but they often have lots of really cool sh*t.
...laura