1. Constitutional Issues
Module 4
Section 2

2. First Amendment
First Amendment – Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or the press…
Written for offensive and/or controversial speech and ideas
Intended to restrict the power of government
Not individuals or private business

3. First Amendment Exclusions
Content-specific
Obscene material
Libel and slander
Harassment
“Fighting words”
Content-neutral

4. Print Medium Strongest First Amendment protection
Fewest government constraints

5. Music Colonial Governor Bans Songs
No threat of censorship for almost two hundred years
Changes in Music Over the Next Thirty Years - violence, profanity,…
Demands for Censorship
Labeling Songs

6. Movies, Censors, and Codes
A Code is Established – 1930s
Filmmakers Fight Censorship
Establish the rating system (G, PG, PG-13… )

7. Broadcast Media Highly regulated Licenses Assign frequencies
Regulate rates
Standards of merit
Banned advertisements

8. The Internet Similar to many types of communication
Internet lets us all be publishers
All you need is a computer and a modem
Internet is a many to many medium
Versus one to one of telephone
One to many of radio

9. Offensive Speech in Cyberspace
Child pornography and libel are illegal anywhere
Proliferates more easily on Internet
Anonymity of the Internet doesn’t help

10. Communications Decency Act of 1996
Initiated by Exon to aide in censorship of Internet
Avoids conflict of first amendment by targeting communications with children
Fines, Jail terms
Ruled UNCONSTITUTIONAL by the Supreme Court in 1997

11. What about Libel?
A person can be sued for damages for saying something in print that is false
Damages victim’s reputation
Responsibility falls on the person making the statement
AND the “provider”
Libraries and bookstores are not responsible because of volume of text

12. Guidelines for Illegal Material on Internet
Based on court case Miller vs. California
It depicts sexual acts whose depiction is specifically prohibited by state law
Depicts these acts in offensive manner – using community standards
Has no serious literary, artistic, social, political, or scientific value

13. Enforcement Problems What is a community on the Internet?
What state does it affect?
What about distribution?
Who is responsible?