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Appeals Court Rules On Internet Obscenity Standards
dark_requiem writes "The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that online content can be judged by the standards of the strictest community that is able to access it. The court upheld the conviction of pornography producer Paul F. Little, aka Max Hardcore, for violating obscenity laws in Tampa, despite the fact that the 'obscene' material in question was produced and sold in California. From the article: 'The Atlanta-based court rejected arguments by Little's attorneys that applying a local community standard to the Internet violates the First Amendment because doing so means material can be judged according to the standards of the strictest communities. In other words, the materials might be legal where they were produced and almost everywhere else. But if they violate the standards of one community, they are illegal in that community and the producers may be convicted of a crime. ... Jurors in Little's trial were told to judge the materials on the basis of how "the average person of the community as a whole — the Middle District of Florida" — would view the material.'"
Very true. Corporations are the Leviathan turned against the people instead of protecting them.
It's essentially the same as a ten year old case were some Baptist-fuck-minister in Tennessee or a similar state ordered some porn from a really, really sleazy couple in California. Then the couple was charged with sending obscenity through the mail.
I can't see why this isn't passed over as entrapment. The critical part of entrapment is "inducing someone to do something they would not otherwise have done". I'll bet the son of a bitch creamed his jeans with the porn a couple hundred times before reporting it to the post office.
It's also part of the race to the bottom on the internet.Germans don't want Nazi stuff traded, so eBay knuckles under. France doesn't like some other shit, so it's banned. Ragheads hate everything, so I guess we should all just go back to the sixth century.
OTOH, the camel-fuckers want to compete in sumo wrestling in the Olympics, so they want to add a bunch of clothes because they also think guy butt is obscene. Yeah, sumo in burqas -- that'll draw the crowds.
Fags need to be shouted down for draining society of resources because they eat shit. They're diseased and serve no useful purpose with their rump roasting.
And if I were European, I'd sue you both, because if you read the Lisbon Treaty, there's apparently no limit to the European Union's legal reach.
You Americans are infringing upon EU law. ;-)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I simply can't believe you're naive enough to think that all makers of shock sites put headers up to allow the likes of netnanny to stop you surfing there by accident. You're not really a moron are you?
With sites like http://www.realtampaswingers.com/ and such, it's obvious the obscenity argument is BS. Tampa isn't any more 'pure' than the rest of America. This is an interstate commerce issue as much as it is an issue of free speech.