Civil liberties groups have filed a suit to challenge a new US law designed
to curb pornography on the Net. The law makes it a crime for commercial websites
to transmit 鈥渉armful鈥� material to children. To protect themselves, they would
have to confirm their customers are adults 鈥攑ossibly by requiring them to
submit their credit card numbers.
The lawsuit is from the same groups鈥攖he Electronic Privacy Information
Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier
Foundation鈥攖hat succeeded in striking down a 1996 law that banned indecent
material on the Internet. The coalition argues that both laws would inhibit free
speech.