Federal judge tosses Pa. child porn-blocking law

[Kadie]

Federal judge tosses Pa. child porn-blocking law

JOANN LOVIGLIO, Associated Press Writer
Friday, September 10, 2004


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(09-10) 11:44 PDT PHILADELPHIA (AP) --

A federal judge threw out on Friday a Pennsylvania law requiring Internet service providers to block Web sites containing child pornography, saying the tools to do so also cause "massive suppression" of constitutionally protected speech.

Enacted in 2002, the law gave Pennsylvania's attorney general the power to require that companies like America Online Inc. block customers from viewing Web sites the state had identified as containing illegal content.

No one challenged the state's right to stop the distribution of child porn, which is already illegal under federal law, but lawyers for the Center for Democracy and Technology and the American Civil Liberties Union had argued that the technology used to block those Web sites was clumsy.

Much as the phone company can't control what people fax over phone lines, ISPs can't control content on the Web, and efforts to use sophisticated filters to stop people from seeing illicit sites have proven problematic.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/09/10/financial1136EDT0095.DTL