I swear they must be doing this stuff on purpose.
You may remember back in 2002 the supreme court struck down as uinconstitutional a ban on ‘virtual child pornography’. The reasoning was, that since no real children were being harmed, then a law to ‘protect the children’ was kind of pointless when directed at computer generated fake images.
The case was Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition and pulled out all the usual panic atacks. Vague and overly broad. Free speach. Pushing us toward a police state. Damn those evil christians pushing their morality off onto everyone else. Ya know, the standard arguments.
Spicificly, in the text was the folowing …..
(6) computers and computer imaging technology can be used to–
(A) alter sexually explicit photographs, films, and videos in su
ch a way as to make it virtually impossible for unsuspecting viewers to iden
tify individuals, or to determine if the offending material was produ
ced using children;
(B) produce visual depictions of child sexual activity designed
to satisfy the preferences of individual child molesters, pedophiles, and pornography collectors; and
(C) alter innocent pictures of children to create visual depicti
ons of those children engaging in sexual conduct;
Ok, enough with the history lesson. Along comes Senate Bill 1738 that has the folowing a crime…..
Title III, SEC. 305(a)(3) ….. knowingly creates, alters, adapts, or modifies a visual depiction of an identifiable minor, as defined in section 2256(9), so that it depicts child pornography as defined in section 2256(8), …..
Yep. Even though the supreme court ruled that ‘virtual’ child porn cant be made againt the law, politicians are making a law againt it again anyway. Ad a sprinkling on top of Section 105 legalizing the ability of police to spy on internet trafic and ya got what by all accounts shoudl be an absoulte riot by sexual-freedom groups.
So who are the prudish victorian minded religious zealots that are behind the atack on our freedoms this time? Sorry to disapoint, but its Oprah. And for an added dash of irony, its being cosponcered by Joe Biden. And ya gotta admire them for calling it the ‘Protect Our Children Act’. Might as well call it the ‘cute adoriable little kittens bill’.
Its being blocked by republican Tom Coburn. So horray for the neocons? Right? Well not so fast. Accoring to his website, the reason he is blocking it has nothign to do with the supreme court having ruled it unconstitutional already once before. Nor any concern about added police power to spy on web trafic. He is blocking it because he suports Sennate Bill 3344 instead. And that creats this little gem.
Title I, SEC. 133(a)(3) …..in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly modifies, with intent to distribute, a visual depiction of an identifiable minor so that the depiction becomes child pornography, …..
Yep, BOTH bills are tryign to ban virtiual child porn. The only reason each party is blocking the oposite bill is because they want to claim ’success’ in passing their own. Each bill says the same thing as the other bill, the only difrence is what party authred it.
So why are both the elephants and the donkies both trying to write a law that has already been declared unconstitutional? The paranoid side of me almost believes they are WANTING the things they write to be declaired unconstitutional so that there will be no change in the status quo. While still being able to use ‘I voted to protect the children’ in their campain ads.