WASHINGTON -- Anti-porn advocates are quietly rallying to outlaw "morphed" child erotica.
This week, the National Law Center for Children and Families (NLC) sent a detailed memo to Congress suggesting how best to ban computer-generated images that seem like nude minors.
It is, the NLC wrote, a bad idea to "invite the porn industry to invest in the technology necessary to create such realistically indistinguishable child porn materials at this time."
Congress' first try in this area failed miserably when the U.S. Supreme Court slapped down a law last month that outlawed any image that "appears to be" of a nude child or teenager under 18 years old. The court's reasoning: If the image was generated by a computer, no actual minor was harmed.
But that isn't stopping the smut-busters in the Bush administration and on Capitol Hill.
Last week, Attorney General John Ashcroft and several members of Congress invited reporters over to the Main Justice building to reveal a revamped bill called the Child Obscenity and Pornography Prevention Act. It's their best shot at trying to head off a future defeat before the high court.
The NLC's brief offers tips for improvements. For instance, it says Congress should define what "simulated" porn is.
According to the NLC, "simulated" is when a sex act "gives the appearance of actually being sexual conduct. (It) does not include conduct that leaves to the imagination or merely suggests, insinuates, hints or implies that sexual conduct may be occurring."
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Mark of the Beast: Should animals in a zoo have privacy rights?
It seems like a strange concept for critters that are intentionally placed behind bars, glass or moats for the sole purpose of having people eyeball them.
But it is also what the National Zoo in Washington is claiming.
The Washington Post reported that zoo officials have denied the newspaper access to animal medical records, especially pathology reports related to the death of a giraffe.
The stated reason: Preserving a dead animal's privacy rights.
According to the zoo director: "Certainly, the privacy rules that apply to human medical records and the physician-patient relationship, do not apply in precisely the same way to animal medicine at a public institution like the National Zoo. But we believe they do in principle."
Such a legal claim is, of course, nonsense.
Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, quipped: "Off the record, EPIC was today contacted by representatives of the Bear, Elephant House and Great Cats exhibits regarding a potential class action lawsuit. There are various tort theories, including intrusion into seclusion. But there are also questions about how the client interviews are to take place."
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Link free: Avi Adelman is getting some help in his linking spat with The Dallas Morning News.
Public Citizen, a liberal nonprofit group, agreed this week to represent Adelman and sent a stiff letter to the newspaper saying his client has a right to create deep hyperlinks pointing to individual news articles.
"I am inclined to believe that your claim of copyright violation is entirely without merit, if not preposterous," wrote Public Citizen attorney Paul Levy.
Last month, the Belo media corporation, owner of The Dallas Morning News, sent Adelman (who publishes the BarkingDogs.org site) a nastygram ordering him to remove all "deep links" to the DallasNews.com site.
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Next week: A House Internet subcommittee is meeting in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to warn parents about the dangers of the Internet.
Yes, this is something that Congress has been fretting about since 1994, when then-Sen. Jim Exon (D-Nebraska) introduced the widely reviled Communications Decency Act.
Even eight years later, politicos haven't changed their tune. It's an election year for all 435 members of the House, remember.
Thus the topic of the hearing, titled "Chatting On-Line: A Dangerous Proposition for Children."
Other suggested titles, submitted by readers: "Unsupervised Conversations With Complete Strangers: A Dangerous Proposition for Children," "Tips and Techniques for Responsible Parenting: Supervising Your Child's On and Off-line Activities To Ensure Appropriate Behavior" and "The Off Button: The Ultimate Tool for Parental Control."
