nt of the law by a federal court. On February 1, 1998 a US District Court Judge Lowell Reed entered a preliminary injunction blocking the COPA. An appeal is expected. In Virginia there is a law that became effective July 1, 1996 that prohibits state employees, including employees of state colleges and universities, from using state-owned or leased computer equipment to "access, download, print or store any information infrastructure files or services having sexually explicit content," except with the express permission of their agency head for "a bona fide, agency-approved research project or other agency-approved undertaking." This law has been called the Virginia Net Decency Act. It is similar to the CDA law that was proposed in Congress. Six Professors from Universities or state colleges in Virginia sued to have the law repealed citing that it was unconstitutional because it:(a) violates their rights and the rights of other state employees to freedom of speech under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution; (b) is unconstitutionally over broad and vague; and (3) violates the First Amendment and Due Process rights of public employees by establishing a system of prior restraint under which they may not speak or receive information and ideas without prior government approval. The State argued that while State employees were at work, they were public employees and not private citizens and therefore did not enjoy the same rights as private citizens. The court found for the plaintiffs saying that the Act is unreasonable because it restricts speech far beyond what is necessary. Moreover the act fails to come up with content neutral alternatives. The act was also cited as being overinclusive and underinclusive in content. Because of all this, the state of Virginia lost their case.A law that was recently argued in NY's District Court was particularly interesting to me. The law made it illegal to use ...
