Massachusetts Senate Bill 636
Massachusetts S.B. 636 would require video game and software publishers and television programmers to post labels on content with violent themes. It also requires parents to bar minors from accessing such content.
Category: 2012
Press Release: Media Groups Urge Supreme Court to Hold that Stolen Valor Act Violates First Amendment
Stating that “the integrity of the military award system relies more on a free press than on the threat of prosecution,” media organizations, writers, and performers urged the Supreme Court to hold that a federal law that makes it a crime to lie about having received a military medal violates the free speech protections of the First Amendment.
Tennessee Senate Bill 2860 and House Bill 3081
Tennessee S.B. 2860 and H.B. 3081 would impose a 25% tax on any material “harmful to minors”; any material sold or rented at a store with an “adults only” section; and any movies with “sexually explicit” content, with the exception of movies rated “R” or “NC-17″ by the Motion Picture Association of America.
Rhode Island Senate Bill 2647
Rhode Island S.B. 2647 would make it a crime to electronically disseminate indecent materials to a person known or believed to be a minor beyond what is allowed under the Miller/Ginsberg test. It would also bar “annoying” communication that serves no legitimate purpose and causes emotional distress to a person. And it would criminalize the distribution of nude images without the consent of the person depicted.
Oklahoma House Bill 2696
Oklahoma H.B. 2696 would impose a 1% excise tax on violent video games. This tax would be added on top of already existing state or local taxes imposed on general merchandise.
Ohio House Bill 414
Ohio H.B. 414 would broaden existing law to criminalize any written communication that causes “mental or emotional” distress to a person or to a person’s family.
New York Assembly Bill 290
New York A.B. 290 would impose a $2 surcharge on each magazine, video, DVD, or website registered in New York that contains nude images.
Nebraska Legislative Bill 948
Nebraska L.B. 948 would criminalize the act of contacting another person using a phone, or any other communication device and multimedia storage device with language with an intent to “annoy,””offend,””harrass,” or “terrify.”
New Hampshire Senate Bill 175
New Hampshire S.B. 175 would create a right of publicity, explicitly giving individuals the right to control the use of his or her identity for 70 years in addition to their lifetime. An amendment to bill removed a section that allowed exceptions for works of or in the media.
Mississippi Senate Bill 2360
Mississippi S.B. 2360 would criminalize the knowing and intentional electronic dissemination of descriptions or depictions of simulated or actual sexually explicit nudity or conduct to a minor. The bill criminalizes content beyond the Miller/Ginsberg test.
Iowa House Study Bill 525
Iowa H.S.B. 525 would apply the state’s “harmful to minors” law to the Internet.
Florida Senate Bill 1618
Florida S.B. 1618 would revise the definition of the term “child pornography” to include visual depiction that has been “created, adapted, or modified to appear” that a minor engaged in sexual conduct.
Arizona House Bill 2549
Arizona H.B. 2549 would make it a misdemeanor to communicate by any electronic or digital device using any obscene, lewd, or profane language or suggest any lewd or lascivious act for any person, if done with the intent to annoy, offend, terrify, intimidate, threaten, or harass.
United States v. Alvarez
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Stolen Valor Act, which made it a crime for any person to falsely represent that he or she had been awarded any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces.
Florence v. Shurtleff
The State of Utah agreed to a stipulated order that limited the scope of the state’s Internet “harmful to minors” law so that it does not apply to the posting of “harmful to minors” content on generally accessible websites.
