FEPP Archives - Press Releases and Advisories - 2001-02

FEPP Releases Guide to Copyright Battles
(December 12, 2002) - Should teenagers be allowed to swap music over the Internet? Should computer hackers be permitted to decrypt the entertainment industry’s electronic locks on e-books, songs, or movies? FEPP's policy report, "The Progress of Science and Useful Arts": Why Copyright Today Threatens Intellectual Freedom, demystifies such complex laws as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and deconstructs the underlying conflicts over "fair use," parody, copying, and the public domain.
For the revised and updated version of this report, click here.

Back to School Censorship: Students, Teachers, and Civil Libertarians Protest Federally Mandated Internet Filters
(September 18, 2002) - At the start of the new school year, students, teachers, and administrators launched a campaign to repeal CIPA, which requires schools and libraries receiving certain federal funds or e-rate discounts to install Internet filters on all their computers.

Supreme Court in COPA Case Ducks Question of What is Harmful to Minors
(May 13, 2002) - The Supreme Court ruled that the use of an unpredictable "community standards" test to determine what online expression is "harmful to minors" is not in itself enough to invalidate the Child Online Protection Act. The Court did not address the question raised four sexuality scholars organizations in a brief written by FEPP - whether minors are really harmed from reading or viewing sexual material. The case was sent back to the lower courts.

Scholars Ask AAP to Reconsider Misstatements About Media Violence
(December 5, 2001) - A group of media scholars asked the American Academy of Pediatrics today to reconsider its November 2001 Policy Statement on Media Violence because of its "many misstatements about social-science research on media effects." The scholars cited both the Policy Statement's factual inaccuracies and its "overall distortions and failure to acknowledge many serious questions about the interpretation of media violence studies."

FEPP Study Shows Internet Filters Are Inherently Flawed
(October 1, 2001) - Internet Filters: A Public Policy Report offers a complete, easy-to-use summary of existing tests, studies, and reports on the over- and under-blocking propensities of the major programs and products designed to filter out Internet sites that are deemed controversial, offensive, or inappropriate for adolescents or children.

Sexuality Scholars Groups File Supreme Court Brief in COPA Case
(September 21, 2001) - The Society for Scientific Study of Sexuality, the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, the Sexual Health Network, the American Board of Sexology, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and the First Amendment Project argue that there is no body of scientific evidence establishing that minors are harmed by reading or viewing sexual material and that the "Child Online Protection Act" is not justified by the government's assertion that pornography lacks a "normal sexual perspective."

image: www.freeimages.co.uk