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A comment on MTV News covers "The Internet", video from 1995.

Re:MTV News covers "The Internet", video from 1995 by vonSeckendorff on Saturday July 30, 2011 @12:27AM (#2824869)
I was shocked by two egregious prosecutions mentioned in the video:

Jake Baker Arrested for posting rape/murder fantasy on the internet case dismissed

Robert Thomas Tried for transmitting porn on the internet sentenced to three years in prison

We must remain guarded against such assaults, even to this day. I don't think there has been much of a shift in politicians' technoliteracy or indeed their ulterior motives.

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Re:MTV News covers "The Internet", video from 1995 by fourspace on Saturday July 30, 2011 @12:34AM (#2824881)
That kind of blew my mind too. Three years in prison for "transmitting porn", prosecuted in a state in which he didn't even reside? WTF.

Here's some more detail from the US Appellate Court: https://www2.bc.edu/~herbeck/cyberlaw.thomas.html

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Re:MTV News covers "The Internet", video from 1995 by aidenn0 on Saturday July 30, 2011 @01:37AM (#2825002)
The main subtlety is that they took personal information when they charged for their content (the decision specifically says there's no squashing of freedom of speech, since they could have screened out people from TN).

Someone signing up with an account from TN is therefore analagous to someone mail-ordering porn from TN, which would also be illegal under this law.

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