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UK Bans Porn Made in the USA |
Internet porn suffered a blow this week when a British judge ruled that the content of American Web sites could be subject to British jurisdiction.
The landmark ruling, issued Wednesday, is a victory for British authorities, who have battled porn on the Internet for years. But privacy advocates worry the ruling could pose a threat to privacy rights.
"This is a free-speech issue and a privacy issue," said Yaman Akdeniz, director of HYPERLINK "http://www.cyber-rights.org/"Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties, UK. "The message the police, courts, and government are sending is, if you are a UK citizen, you won’t be able to sell pornography because anything you sell will be considered obscene."
British law prohibits the distribution of pornography for financial gain under its Obscene Publications Act of 1959. The law was amended in 1994 to include computer-related pornography. Privacy advocates say the laws are out of touch with the times.
"[British laws] are very restrictive and far behind the US laws on obscenity," Akdeniz said. "An erect penis would be obscene in the UK. So that would mean that most of the stuff on the Internet itself would be considered obscene."
Just after the ruling, 28-year-old businessman Graham Waddon pleaded guilty to running Britain's largest Internet porn operation, according to a story by the HYPERLINK "http://www.bbc.co.uk/home/today/"BBC.
Waddon ran a group of for-profit US porn sites from his home in Sutton, South of London, with titles such as HYPERLINK "http://www.farmsex.com/"FarmSex, Europerv, and Schoolgirls-'R'-Us. As such, he argued the porn material was published outside of Britain.
Southwark Crown Court Judge Christopher Hardy disagreed. He ruled that the publication occurred when Waddon transmitted the material to the Web sites and when British police downloaded it.
British police were thrilled with the ruling, according to the BBC.
"The judge’s findings mean [Waddon] and others like him who try to avoid prosecution by placing this material abroad are making a big mistake," Neal Ysart of the Obscene Publications and Internet Unit told reporters. "They will be prosecuted."
But privacy advocates are concerned that the new law will keep an anachronistic system from changing with the times.
"The real issue behind the debate is the current state of obscenity laws in the UK," Akdeniz said. "They are very antiquated and do not represent the Information Age -- we’re not in the '50s any more." |
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