ies.14 By merely informing Compuserve that it was breaking Baravian lawby giving German residents access to sexual newsgroups, Compuserve removed anynewsgroup that had titles with "sex", "gay", or "erotic" which in turn deniedaccess to not only Germany users but all its users.15On June 12, 1996, three federal judges in Philadelphia, PA, ruled that the 1996Communications Decency Act violated the First Amendment to the Constitution.The panel comprised of three dedicated judges Stewart Dalzell, Dolores K.Sloviter, and Ronald L. Backwalter. They voiced their opinion about thecensorship and say that the bill is unconstitutional. The panel believes thatthe Internet must be protected since it is an important form of expression andfree speech. The judges enacted a restraining order preventing enforcement ofthe unconstitutional act."It's virtually impossible [to regulate the Net] because of the global natureof this communications device. It would mean monitoring every phone call [intothe Internet], which is impossible to do," stated David Ellington, the C.E.O.of NetNoir.16 "My boss supports First Amendment Freedoms, but is alsosupportive of protection of decency," the legislative assistant to Rep. EdTowns (D-NY), Khalil Munir responds.17 "As the most participatory form of massspeech yet developed, the Internet deserves the highest protection fromgovernmental intrusion," judge Stewart Dalzell offered.18 Dalzell believesthat the Internet is a good place which allows its users the largestenvironment for free expression and speech.19 Dalzell assure that the DecencyAct is not required to protect children from pornography.20The July 3 report, "On a Screen Near You: Cyberporn,"[Time] was based on aCarnegie Mellon University study. Led by student Martin Rimm, researchers saidthey found more then 900,000 sexually explicit images and text files online,but neglected to point out that most came from privately owned adult bulletinboards with no con...
