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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Mon, May 23rd 2005 10:55am





UK Says No To Internet Ordered Porn

from the interesting-precedent dept

Over in the UK, the High Court has ruled that people can no longer order "adult" DVDs online. The reasoning makes sense at first, but quickly becomes problematic. The basic explanation is that there's no way to verify the age of the person who's ordering, and this ruling is meant to keep porn out of the hands of children. Basically, this moves the "age test" to the store, where the Court assumes a clerk can run the old "eyeball test" to figure out how old someone is. Leaving aside, of course, the fact that plenty of children figured out ways to see porn before the internet existed, this could become more troublesome soon. As content moves from plastic discs to online, then how will the courts distinguish between ordering a DVD online from clicking a button to see streaming video online? If anything, it seems like this ruling could eventually mean that all internet related porn is illegal in the UK -- which would be impossible to enforce.

5 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Just order from abroad

    identicon
    dorpus, May 23rd, 2005 @ 11:25am

    Amazon is the world's largest distributor of kiddie porn anyway, selling books of 11-year-olds like this one.

    http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00092QVTS/249-5701781-5716363

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re: Just order from abroad

    identicon
    Kevin, May 23rd, 2005 @ 11:47am


    Wow dorpus, those are some well endowed 11 year olds!

    Because asians have a tendency to look young to us dirty old western men doesnt make them under age.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Internet is already a bigger sex shop

    identicon
    TJ, May 23rd, 2005 @ 5:25pm

    Really, no 'walk in' store could match the breadth of porn that is already available today via download or streaming on the 'net. So much of it is pay, of course, with age verification that is usually nothing more than that one has a credit card. How it is more of a problem to ship a DVD by post than have instant access online is baffling.

    Oh well, it is good to know that the USA doesn't have a monopoly on pointless court decisions.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, May 23rd, 2005 @ 6:48pm

    Folks, particularly those folks in government, need to be WAY less afraid of porn.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    identicon
    TJ, May 24th, 2005 @ 8:29pm

    Agreed, so long as said porn isn't enjoyed in the office or on a DVD player in the car that's visible from other vehicles (both of which frighteningly do happen). Porn is just the latest thing we're all supposed to give up in our private lives "for the sake of the children". Why don't we ever make children give anything up for the sake of the adults? There are way more of us anyway, and we can vote.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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