New
Bookstore Subpoena Reported; Tattered Cover Funddrive Continues
Another bookstore has received
a subpoena for customer records. A private attorney issued a subpoena late last year to a
Borders Books & Music store in Braintree, Massachusetts. While few details of the case
are available, the attorney is apparently attempting to find the owner of a book that was
used as a projectile in an incident that led to a civil lawsuit. Including the warrant
issued to search the Tattered Cover Book Store, the Braintree subpoena brings to three the
total of demands for customer information served on booksellers in 2000.
ABFFE has been raising funds to help the
Tattered Cover pay its legal bills. So far, 86 booksellers have contributed over $7,000.
If you want to help the Tattered Cover's fight to protect customer privacy, you can
contribute through the ABFFE Store on the ABFFE home page, http://www.abffe.com,
or write a check payable to ABFFE and send it to 139 Fulton St., Suite 302, NY, NY 10038.
All Tattered Cover contributors automatically become members of ABFFE and receive all
member benefits.
ABFFE Joins
Protest Over Federal Law Mandating Censoring Software
ABFFE has joined the protest
over Congress' latest effort to censor the Internet. This time, Congress has passed a law
requiring public libraries and schools to install software filters that will block out
sexual material. In doing so, it ignored research that shows that if filters work at all,
which is questionable, they block out too much. A filter that bars references to breasts
can also deny access to sites that offer information on breast cancer.
The latest censorship law
requires public schools and libraries that use federal funds to provide Internet services
to install filtering programs to screen out images that are "harmful to minors."
The filters are to be installed not just on computers in the children's section but on
computers that are primarily used by adults. However, adults may request the temporary
removal of the features for "legitimate" purposes. (Does research for a history
of the garter belt count?)
Both the American Library
Association and the American Civil Liberties Union have announced plans to challenge the
law. ABFFE has joined other members of the Internet Free Expression Alliance in condemning
the filtering requirement.
Supreme Court
Weighs Law Expanding Definition of Child Pornography
Remember a few years ago when
anti-smut activists launched a national campaign to force booksellers to stop selling
"child pornography," including the books of photographer Jock Sturges?
Protestors entered a least 10 bookstores, pulling Sturges books from the shelves and
destroying them. They also pressured law enforcement officials to bring child pornography
charges against booksellers, and there were indictments of two Barnes & Noble stores
in Alabama and a Borders store in Tennessee.
The U.S. Supreme Court has just
accepted a case that will determine whether child pornography remains narrowly defined or
whether it will be expanded to include artistic works. When the Supreme Court approved the
first child pornography law in 1982, it made it clear that it was targeting pictures of
actual children engaged in sexual conduct.
They were illegal
because the act of taking the picture was itself a form of child abuse, the Court ruled.
The law the Court has agreed to review, the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996,
expanded the definition of child pornography to include virtually any work that might
arouse a child abuser, including pictures of adults who appear to be children engaged in
sexual conduct and even drawings of nude children. The chilling effect on artistic
work is clear. A 1998 film version of "Lolita" that used an adult
"body-double" for the sex scenes was unable to find a U.S. distributor for many
months, apparently because of concern that it might be considered child pornography.
The Supreme
Court is expected to hear the CPPA case late this year. ABFFE will join other groups in
filing an amicus brief urging the Court not to allow the censorship of artistic works
simply because they may appeal to criminals. This would open a gaping hole in the First
Amendment that would allow for all kinds of restrictions on works that might
"incite" evildoing.
Clearance Sale
on Muggles Buttons Continuing
ABFFE's Muggles for Harry
Potter clearance sale is continuing. The price of Muggles for Harry Potter buttons has
been cut by over 50 per cent and shipping is free. The price of a 100 button bag has been
cut from $40 to $25, and the discount grows if you order more. Two bags are now $40; 3
bags, $50. Order now while supplies last! The buttons are listed in the Special Offers
section of the ABFFE store,
www.abffe.com. Or call ABFFE at (212) 587-4025. Meanwhile, ABFFE is continuing to offer
Muggles for Harry Potter T-shirts to new members of the foundation. New members can join ABFFE online, by telephone or
by sending a check for $35 to ABFFE, 139 Fulton St., Suite 302, New York, NY 10038.
Previously in ABFFE Update
|
