ALA/ACLU file lawsuit challenging NY "CDA" law, from NNN

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 08:43:52 -0800 (PST)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: ALA/ACLU file lawsuit challenging New York "CDA" law

[Visit netlynews.com for the rest of the story. Another reason to follow
the New York case is that a successful challenge to its "harmful to
minors" ban could create a useful precedent in fighting a CDA 2.0, which
likely will have such language. --Declan]

***********

The Netly News Network
http://netlynews.com

A Civil (Libertarian) War
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
January 14, 1997
   
       On a frosty winter morning last February, Shabbir Safdar and a
   gaggle of VTW loyalists trekked to Albany, New York, to protest a
   state bill that would muzzle the Net. "This was our first time doing
   any state-level lobbying," Safdar says. "We managed to convince them
   to take some stuff out of the law." But his efforts didn't stop the   
   measure from wending its way through the legislature: In September,
   Governor George Pataki signed it into law.
                      
       Today the ACLU sued New York State in federal court, charging that
   the law is unconstitutional. New York now takes its place among two
   dozen states battling similar local legislation that would criminalize
   certain forms of Net speech. In Georgia, for instance, merely having
   an anonymous user name could be illegal. Virginia restricts state
   employees' rights to view sexually explicit material -- college       
   professors who might want to use the Net in, say, an English lit class
   have to exercise extreme caution. Forget the Communications Decency
   Act: A kind of civil war is being waged across half the U.S.
   
       The ALA v. Pataki lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New
   York, involves 14 plaintiffs including the American Library
   Association, the American Booksellers Association Foundation for Free
   Expression, Panix, Echo and the ACLU. The coalition, which is asking
   for a permanent injunction, maintains that the law unconstitutionally
   stifles online speech and unduly interferes with interstate commerce.
   The law amends the penal code by making it a criminal offense
   punishable by seven years in prison to distribute pictures or text
   "which (are) harmful to minors."

       We here at The Netly News are ardent advocates of free speech, of
   course -- we held a joint teach-in on the New York law in the fall. So
   I spoke to Ann Beeson, a staff attorney at the ACLU, who's spent the
   last year attacking other state laws and the CDA in court. Why should
   netizens care about this law if they don't live in New York? I asked
   her.

       "Because New York can extradite you," she replied.

       But what if it's not a crime where I live?
   
       "It doesn't make a difference," Beeson said. "There's no question
   that New York could try to extradite you if you put up a web site that
   has material harmful to minors on it."

[...]