Judge Blocks Online Porn Law

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Government efforts to control Internet pornography were given another blow Thursday when a federal judge struck down the almost decade old Child Online Protection Act (COPA) which makes it a crime for commercial Web site operators to let children access "harmful" material.

In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed Jr. said parents can protect their children through software filters and other less restrictive means that do not limit the rights of others to free speech, AP reports.

"Perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection," the judge wrote.

The law would have criminalized Web sites that allow children to access material deemed "harmful to minors" by "contemporary community standards." The sites would have been expected to require a credit card number or other proof of age. Penalties included a $50,000 fine and up to six months in prison.

Sexual health sites, LGBT online publications, the online magazine Salon.com and other Web sites backed by the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the law. They argued that the Child Online Protection Act was unconstitutionally vague and would have had a chilling effect on speech.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a temporary injunction in 2004 on grounds the law was likely to be struck down and was perhaps outdated.