[Foundation-l] YouPorn in Germany: Another ugly legal case

[Robert Rohde]

Since somehow foundation-l started talking about porn and censorship, it may
also be of interest that last week the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals threw
out the section 2257 record keeping laws as an unconstitutional infringment
of free speech.

For those who are unfamiliar, the section 2257 laws (also known as the Child
Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act) are the ones that
require photographers and publishers to keep and make available records
establishing the age of all performers appearing in photos and videos of a
explicitly sexual nature.  The constitutional justification for such laws,
as advanced by the government, was to hinder child pornography.  Corcern
over 2257 has been a perenial issue on enwiki, even though the
requirements appear to exempt non-commercial publishers unless they are also
the photographer.

The Court found that the law was unconstitutionally overbroad because it
took in a wide range of legal activities and made no exceptions for the
private, non-commerical conduct of consenting adults even when there was
neglible likelihood being confused with child pornography.

Court opinion: http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/07a0430p-06.pdf

-Robert Rohde