http://cache.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/valleywag.com.png http://valleywag.com/tag/aclu http://valleywag.com/tag/aclu Defeated a third time this week: the Child Online Protection Act, a 10-year-old law deemed unenforceable twice by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and once by the Supreme Court. The American Civil Liberties Union argued that though the law is written supposedly to prohibit minor's access to "harmful" materials online, it could land your average sex blogger selling CafePress g-strings up to six months imprisonment for not blocking underage Web users from their site. Though the guidelines for what's considered "harmful" have been deemed overbroad, it's anticipated that the Bush Administration will seek another appeal. Better hurry if he wants to block Obamaporn before he rolls out of office. (Photo by Silveira Neto)

]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:20:00 PDT Melissa Gira Grant http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5028851&view=rss&microfeed=true With the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle successfully challenged an FBI request to secretly hand over information about the site's users. The FBI had sent Kahle a "national security letter" which requested personal information about a particular user and put Kahle under a gag order. Approximately 200,000 of the secret requests, which need no judicial approval, were issued between 2003 and 2006 after the NSL program was expanded by the Patriot Act. Kahle's case is one of only three the ACLU is aware of where NSL requests were successfully overturned in court. (Photo by David Silver)

]]> Thu, 08 May 2008 13:00:00 PDT Jackson West http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=388540&view=rss&microfeed=true