Xref: utzoo comp.admin.policy:355 alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk:98 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!uunet!world!eff!kadie From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie) Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy,alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk Subject: Re: publicly-readable "adult" gifs (was Re: Ohio State University CIS Policies) Message-ID: <1991Jun8.032151.18841@eff.org> Date: 8 Jun 91 03:21:51 GMT References: <1991Jun3.165946.12637@eff.org> <1991Jun3.173550.13928@eff.org> <1991Jun3.232500.24850@ms.uky.edu> <1991Jun4.004016.20415@eff.org> In article <1991Jun7.180227.4515@eff.org> kadie@eff.org (that's me) writes: >>Can you be more specific? What rules? What law? jgreely@morganucodon.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely) writes: >The university's sexual harassment rules, and the state law on making >"pornography" available to minors (we *do* get some). [...] >[I]n the specific case of R- >or X-rated graphic images, we care about the file permissions. [...] (I'll respond with two notes.) So the second question is how far can the freedom to read (or view) be suppressed in the name of protecting youth? My information on this may be out-of-date, but according to the ACLU's Handbook on the Rights of Authors and Artists (1984): "Although the Supreme Court has not yet considered the issue [of minor access laws], three 'display' or 'access' statutes have been struck down as unconstitutional by lower courts. A Georgia display law was invalidated because it prevented the perusal by and limited the sale of constitutionally protected material to adults. Protecting minors was held to be an inadequate justification for such a severe interference with adults' First Amendment rights. A Colorado display statute was invalidated because the court concluded that channels for the interchange of literary, political, artistic, and scientific ideas about sex were effectively closed by the statute and that its enforcement would regulate to a commercially infeasible degree the activities of responsible members of the community. Likewise a California court invalidated a display ordinance which required that commercial establishments seal magazines or books containing sexually explicit but non-obscene picture, keep them out of the reach of minors, or else bar minors from entering the stores. [...]" Does anyone know the details of the state of Ohio law? How do the librarians and art teachers at OSU stay out of jail? Do they card for underage students? Do resident advisors police dorm rooms, making sure that no 17 year olds are allowed to R-rated movies on cable? - Carl -- Carl Kadie -- kadie@eff.org or kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- But I speak for myself.