"There are thousands of communities in the States and applying them each individually would be a civil liberties nightmare."

On the surface, the Child Online Protection Act sounds like a good idea. Who doesn't want to protect kids from harmful content? A law that would make it so only adults had access to sexually oriented sites sounds like a great idea. That idea is the summarized version of the Child Online Protection Act - signed into law in 1998-, which requires:

"RESTRICTION OF ACCESS BY MINORS TO MATERIALS SOLD BY MEANS OF WORLD WIDE WEB THAT ARE HARMFUL TO MINORS."

COPA (if enforced) would punish offending sites thusly:

"(1) Prohibited conduct

Whoever knowingly and with knowledge of the character of the material, in interstate or foreign commerce by means of the World Wide Web, makes any communication for commercial purposes that is available to any minor and that includes any material that is harmful to minors shall be fined not more than $50,000, imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both.

(2) Intentional violations

In addition to the penalties under paragraph (1), whoever intentionally violates such paragraph shall be subject to a fine of not more than $50,000 for each violation. For purposes of this paragraph, each day of violation shall constitute a separate violation.

(3) Civil penalty

In addition to the penalties under paragraphs (1) and (2), whoever violates paragraph (1) shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $50,000 for each violation. For purposes of this paragraph, each day of violation shall constitute a separate violation. "

Although made a law in 1998, COPA has never been enforced. Instead the COPA has been bouncing around the court system since it was passed by the House, the Senate and signed by President Clinton. First the 3rd Circuit Court put an injunction on the law, which is really an amendment to the Communications Act of 1934. Then it went to the Supreme Court who in turn boomeranged it back to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

On Thursday, March 6, the court ruled COPA to be unsound constitutionally.

In it's initial injunction they said that the Internet was an entity separate from individual communities and it was unconstitutional to judge it a such.

(In the United States, each county has their own criteria for determining what is and what is not offensive/objectionable material.) The Supreme Court said the unconstitutionality determined by the Circuit Court didn't hold water and made the 3rd Circuit re-review COPA. This time the Court of Appeals has ruled that COPA "contains a number of provisions that are constitutionally infirm."

The Child Online Protection Act is a document that is obsolete and unfitting of the medium. It only wants to punish sites that make money from harmful content. It says nothing about porn on homepages, USENET or P2P networks, except to absolve hosts and ISPs of responsibility in the matter.

COPA requires that the sites in question prove the age of their viewers by credit card, digital certificates or "by any other reasonable measures that are feasible under available technology". Could that last bit include the beloved Warning Page?

And finally the Circuit Court and free speech groups still have a problem attaching community standards to web sites. There are thousands of communities in the States and applying them each individually would be a civil liberties nightmare.

Another confusing point is the text of the law keeps referring to content "that is harmful to minors". A parent can take their kid to the bar and give them a drink. COPA only mentions parental responsibility as a backhanded preamble. There is barely a mention of filtering software. Reading the whole text of COPA, it's obvious people that had no clue wrote the legislation.

Requiring a credit card number before a surfer can enter a commercial site won't end free online porn. Instead, it will probably open up a hornet's nest of identity theft, false advertising and forced downloads. The whole World Wide Web will not accommodate community standards city by city, especially if web hosts and ISPs are held unaccountable to COPA. Our children will still be able to find porn through search engines, news groups, file sharing and non-commercial free sites if COPA is ever enacted.

Parents -whom the law so easily dismisses in this legislation-, are still going to have to do their job to make sure their kids are protected from "harmful content". Maybe we need a law but we don't need this law. Maybe what we need are better parents.