Slog - Comments on Required Reading: Slate on Laws We're Allowed to Break http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo In the Unites States, using a computer to download obscenity is a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison. Federal law makes it a crime to use "a computer service" to transport over state lines "any obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy book, pamphlet, picture, motion-picture film, paper, letter, writing, print, or other matter of indecent character." Under the plain reading of the statute, most men in the United States may be felons.... Copyright 2008 Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:50:32 -0800 Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:25:49 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Algernon This criminalizes obscenity, not pornography. What's obscene is always pornographic. What's porn is not necessarily obscene. Obscenity, whether or not on the internet, is prohibited most everywhere in the U.S. Because the Supreme Court has interpreted, consistent with its application of the First Amendment, obscenity quite narrowly (to include "no redeeming social value"), it's next to impossible to prove. So we're not really guilty of the crime.

]]> Algernon http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c827320 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c827320 Sex Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:35:11 -0800 Comment by Bison Ugh. It would be nice if that Slate author would bother to know what in the fuck he's talking about before sitting down to write his next installment.

]]> Bison http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c827363 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c827363 Sex Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:18:59 -0800 Comment by muckfetro Would you like some flowers #1?

]]> muckfetro http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c827385 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c827385 Sex Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:39:22 -0800 Comment by Fnarf That picture of the German Shepherd I accidentally saw in Google Images had no redeeming social value. Come take me away.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c827438 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c827438 Sex Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:27:16 -0800 Comment by Mahtli69 Clearly, Slog readers outside of Washington state are felons.

]]> Mahtli69 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c827622 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c827622 Sex Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:33:58 -0800 Comment by Wildeman2 Not enforcing laws??
This government has just taken different tactics. They're trying to scare away all websites with 2257, and pushing agendas by picking communites with different obscenity laws

http://www.avn.com/index.cfm?objectID=AED9F76F-9A7E-F9FE-EB1C05B752B5F153

I'm going to have to agree with Algernon on this one

]]> Wildeman2 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c828376 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/required_reading_slate_on_laws_were_allo#c828376 Sex Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:25:49 -0800