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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?
First movies, then video games, now books will need to have a big ugly "E" stamped on their cover before they can be sold to minors. And on the back cover there will be spoilers like "Warning! Graphic content: main character murdered at the end"
At least until this case gets decided and the law is thrown out.
That sexually explicit comment there obviously serves no purpose other than titillation.
The enemies of Democracy are
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.
There is some fairly raunchy stuff in the Bible. Not attened for good people under the age of 18. Heck they have every sin in there.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
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
The courts are not going to agree that it is constitutionally problematic that they cannot comply due to reasonable manpower issues.
From Cubby v. Compuserve, a case dealing with postings made on a forum on Compuserve:
The court system does have an amazing amount of sense at times. Under the First Amendment, it would be a impermissible burden to have to monitor each and every work.
CUBBY v. COMPUSERVE, U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, 776 F. Supp. 135, October 29, 1991
I don't understand the problem here. Powell's simply needs to ban children from their store. Why should children be reading books their parents haven't approved, anyway? In fact, I think no child should be allowed to read a book that their parents haven't or can't read. That way, illiteracy will become an inheritable disease, and we'll need a government program to treat it. Your health care dollars at work.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Sounds like you should be running chains, not studs...
"I do have a cause, though, it is obscenity. I'm for it! (laughter) Thank you. Unfortunately, the civil liberties types who are fighting this issue have to fight it, owing to the nature of the laws, as a matter of freedom of speech and stifling of free expression and so on. But we know what's really involved: dirty books are fun! That's all there is to it. But you can't get up in a court and say that, I suppose. It's simply a matter of freedom of pleasure, a right which is not guaranteed by the Constitution, unfortunately. Anyway, since people seem to be marching for their causes these days, I have here a march for mine. It's called:"
Smut!
Give me smut and nothing but!
A dirty novel I can't shut
If it's uncut
and unsubt-le.
I've never quibbled
If it was ribald.
I would devour
Where others merely nibbled.
As the judge remarked the day that he acquitted my Aunt Hortense,
"To be smut
It must be ut-
Terly without redeeming social importance."
Por-
Nographic pictures I adore.
Indecent magazines galore,
I like them more
If they're hard core.
Bring on the obscene movies, murals, postcards, neckties, samplers, stained
glass windows, tattoos, anything!
More, more, I'm still not satisfied!
Stories of tortures
Used by debauchers
Lurid, licentious and vile,
Make me smile.
Novels that pander
To my taste for candor
Give me a pleasure sublime.
Let's face it I love slime!
Old books can be indecent books,
Though recent books are bolder.
For filth, I'm glad to say,
Is in the mind of the beholder.
When correctly viewed,
Everything is lewd.
I could tell you things about Peter Pan
And the Wizard of Oz - there's a dirty old man!
I thrill
To any book like Fanny Hill,
And I suppose I always will
If it is swill
And really fil-thy.
Who needs a hobby like tennis or philately?
I've got a hobby: rereading Lady Chatterley.
But now they're trying to take it all away from us unless
We take a stand, and hand in hand we fight for freedom of the press.
In other words: Smut! I love it.
Ah, the adventures of a slut.
Oh, I'm a market they can't glut.
I don't know what
Compares with smut.
Hip, hip, hooray!
Let's hear it for the Supreme Court!
Don't let them take it away!
By the way, It was the Multnomah County Library that led the national fight against Internet censorship in libraries several years ago. They have chosen to reject federal funding so that they don't have to comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act (won't somebody think of the children!) which mandates that public libraries install filtering software on their computers.
And they link to Slashdot.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Article I, section 8: No law shall be passed restraining the free expression of opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write, or print freely on any subject whatever; but every person shall be responsible for the abuse of this right. I seriously doubt, given the history of this clause, that the Oregon Supreme Court is going to find that it's okay to "speak, write, or print freely on any subject whatever," but not to sell the result. Hell, I mean Oregon voters rejected Measure 19 intended to specifically exempt porn from this clause in 1994, and then again with Measure 31 two years later.
While the law is pretty narrowly tailored in defining what sexually explicit material is (you can read it here), I'm surprised they thought it would stand. Maybe they didn't -- who knows?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Years ago before you could see anything you could imagine googling for, young kids got their porn pictures from National Geographic where tribal womam had breasts exposed or more.
The problem with "titillation" is that, more than subjective, it ignores context. I wrote a "porn filter" for an internet search site 10 years ago, and while I was looking at all sorts of porn, I was not "titillated." I was studying the language, canonical terms, and word usage to create a proper filter.
I posted Tom Lehrer's "smut" earlier, but I think my point was missed. Specifically, the paragraph where it goes: "For filth is in the mind of the beholder, when correctly viewed, everything is lewd, I can tell you things about Peter Pan, and the wizard of Oz is a dirty old man."
"Titillation" can be anything from pictures of women in police uniforms, hell, some people get their rocks off by looking at pictures of women's feet. I don't understand it, but it is true.
Censorship, throughout history, has never had much success in suppressing that which had been targeted. It has, however, been quite successful in suppressing those that disseminate information. and creating an environment of fear.
Censorship is terrorism.
[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
I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.