Filtering Turn-About

[Andrew I. Mutch]

For those who didn't catch the news reports, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld
the injunction by a District Court halting enforcement of the Child Online
Protection Act (COPA). While the court did not rule directly on the law,
as some news reports have stated, a majority of the Court did agree that
the law, once litigated, will likely be found to violate the First
Amendment. The case has been remanded to the District Court for a trial on
the challenge of the constitutional claims made by the coalition of groups
opposing the law. 

What I found quite interesting is how the majority opinion looked to
filtering software as a less-restrictive alternative to achieve the goals
of COPA. Compared to the schemes envisioned by COPA, the majority saw
filters as a way to control content without actually restricting speech at
its source. The majority even considered filtering software, despite its
limitations, to be a more effective alternative than the schemes COPA
proposed. 

Having convinced the Court in the ALA case that filters were effective
controls on pornographic material, the government suddenly found that
argument turned against its arguments in COPA that filters weren't an 
effective tool to stop children from accessing pornographic web sites.
On the flip side, the free speech coalition found itself in the position
of arguing that the use of filters by parents and others was a preferred
alternative to the restrictions that COPA would have imposed. This
argument was supported by the government's own Commission on Child Online
Protection. One of the reasons that the Court remanded the case was to
determine if new technology or schemes, like the dot kids domain, might be
even more effective in balancing the First Amendment rights of adults with
the government's goal of shielding children from certain material. 

More details here:

High Court: Porn Law Too Broad 
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,64028,00.html

In Victory for Online Free Speech, Supreme Court Upholds Block on Internet
Censorship Law 
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=16025&c=252

Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician
Waterford Township Public Library
Waterford, MI