Brief Filed Challenging COPA on Free Speech Grounds - Today the Center for Democracy & Technology filed a "friend of the court" brief in federal appeals court challenging the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) as a violation of the First Amendment. The amicus brief, submitted to the Third Circuit on behalf of CDT and 17 other groups, argued that COPA places unconstitutional burdens on producers and distributors of Web content. Other strategies are more effective than COPA at protecting children from inappropriate online content, and also impose fewer restrictions on lawful adult speech — in particular, technological parental controls such as Internet filtering software and non-technological tools such as youth education. Amici included organizations that represent corporate leaders in the Internet industry; publishers, distributors and retailers of books and other content; libraries and librarians; newspapers, editors and journalists; and public interest organizations that uphold civil liberties and advocate for a free and open Internet. Human rights groups also filed an amicus brief against COPA, arguing that the statute's asserted overseas applicability could lead to reciprocal foreign censorship of U.S. speech and toward a global trend of Internet censorship. October 29, 2007
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