back to article | 20. For example, German authorities, seeking to prevent violations of that country's laws against distribution of pornographic material, ordered CompuServe to disable access by German residents to certain global Usenet newsgroups that would otherwise be accessible through that commercial service. See Karen Kaplan, Germany Forces Online Service to Censor Internet, L.A. Times, Dec. 29, 1995, at A1; Why Free-Wheeling Internet Puts Teutonic Wall over Porn, Christian Sci. Monitor, Jan 4, 1996, at 1; Cyberporn Debate Goes International; Germany Pulls the Shade On CompuServe, Internet, Wash. Post, Jan. 1, 1996, at F13 (describing efforts by a local Bavarian police force had the effect of requiring CompuServe to temporarily cut off the availability of news groups to its entire audience (at least until a way to prevent delivery of specified groups to the German audience could be developed). Anyone inside Germany with an Internet connection could easily find a way to access the prohibited news groups during the ban. Auerbach, supra note 19, at 15. Although initially compliant, CompuServe subsequently rescinded the ban on most of the files by sending parents a new program to choose for themselves what items to restrict. CompuServe Ends Access Suspension: It reopens all but five adult-oriented newsgroups. Parents can now block offensive material, L.A. Times, Feb. 14, 1996, at D1. Similarly, Tennessee may insist (indirectly, through enforcement of a federal law that defers to local community standards) that an electronic bulletin board in California install filters that prevent offensive screens from being displayed to users in Tennessee if it is to avoid liability under local obscenity standards in Tennessee. See United States v. Thomas, _ F.3d _, 1996 WL 30477 (6th Cir. 1996) (affirming the convictions of a California couple for violations of federal obscenity laws stemming from electronic bulletin board postings made by the couple in California but accessible from and offensive to the community standards of Tennessee). See generally Electronic Frontier Foundation, A Virtual Amicus Brief in the Amateur Action Case, (Aug. 11, 1995), available at http://www.eff.org/pub/Legal/Cases/AABBS_Thomases_Memphis/Old/aa_eff_vbrief.html. The bulletin board in this case had very clear warnings and password protection. This intangible boundary limited entrance to only those who voluntarily desired to see the materials and accepted the system operator's rules. It is our contention that posting offensive materials in areas where unwilling readers may come across them inadvertently raises different problems that are better dealt with by those who understand the technology involved rather than by extrapolating from the conflicting laws of multiple geographic jurisdictions. See text accompanying notes 64-67 supra. | ![]() |