From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 23:54:45 PST
To: greg@ideath.goldenbear.com (Greg Broiles)
Subject: Re: Oh No! Nazis on the Nets
In-Reply-To: <198LHc2w165w@ideath.goldenbear.com>
Message-ID: <199402130747.CAA26755@eff.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


 
Greg writes:

> "Perry E. Metzger" <uunet!lehman.com!pmetzger> writes:
> 
> > I'll remind you that the supreme court has held that text-only works
> > can not be held to be obscene. You can write anything you want,
> > including explicit descriptions of sodomizing dead children, and it
> > can not be censored.
> 
> As I mentioned to Perry in E-mail, the above is incorrect. Pure text
> can be obscene and hence unprotected by the First Amendment.  Kaplan v.
> California, 413 U.S. 115, 118-119, 93 S.Ct. 2680, 2683-2684 (1973).
> Others here (Mike Godwin?) can likely provide a much better discussion
> of just where this fits into First Amendment law; Shepherds' reveals no
> more recent decisions which modify the holding in Kaplan.
 
Greg is right. (Sorry, Perry.) As a practical matter, there are almost
no obscenity prosecutions for words these days, but technically it's
possible that words can be obscene. Ask 2 Live Crew.


--Mike