Introduction
The landmark cases have established a continuous influence on our laws and future cases today. The cases entail court cases that are studied as they have legal and historical importance. A landmark decision establishes a substantial new legal concept or principle or transforms the interpretation of current law. The examines three landmark cases in digital communication comprising United States v. Anderson (2014), Fort Wayne Books v. Indiana (1989), and California v. FCC (1988).
The Three Landmark Cases
United States v. Anderson (2014)
Case Summary
The Case involved the digital manipulation of an image of a minor’s face onto the adult’s body having sex. George Anderson appealed his sentence and conviction for two accounts of children’s sex trafficking. At the trial, the government case revealed that Anderson induced two minor females who were working for him as prostitutes. The defendant stated that no actual child suffered the sexual abuse. He cited the Free Speech Coalition under the First Amendment. Hence, the federal appeal court accepted the compelling argument of the U.S. Government to protect innocent minors from substantial harm related to morphed pictures. The federal appeal court argued that morphed pictures are the same as child pornography because they are children’s records of harmful sexual exploitation (Moore, Murray, Youm, & Farrell, 2022). The court, therefore, found that the sentence was not an abuse of discretion, affirming the sentence and conviction of Anderson.
Effect on Digital Communication Practices and Law
The Eighth Circuit differentiated its earlier judgment permitting morphed child porn prosecution when a minor’s face was superimposed on another adult’s face having sexually explicit behavior. The ruling assisted to strengthen and empower people to report any cases involving morphed child pornography because they lead to reputational harm because pornography is excluded from the First Amendment (Steinberg, 2019). Regulating and controlling the conduct of morphed images is critical to shun cyberbullying and pedophiles from using it to induce children into sexual abuse acts (Jung, 2022). Further, the ruling affects future digital communication about morphed child pornography because they can be charged and sentenced for reputational harm.
Content and Messaging Changes were Created for United States v. Anderson (2014)
Promoting children rights by protecting the rights of those whose images have been morphed for use in pornographic videos have changed the way people possess and distribute pornographic materials. The message is that morphed child pornography damages their reputation as real child images; hence, such videos are punishable by the law. The best legal practices are the protection of children from cybercrime activities. The law ensures meaningful remedies for children’s pornographic victims (Federman, 2021). The law has refined child pornography law in clarifying the questions and formulating answers to media companies involved in the distribution and possession of morphed child pornography videos.
Fort Wayne Books v. Indiana (1989)
Case Summary
The Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) statute was successful in addressing the problem of interstate possession and distribution of pornography. The operator of an adult bookstore was charged with the distribution of obscene material comprising films and books in breach of the Indiana statute (Wiggins, 2022). The Indiana Supreme Court ruled that a RICO, a state form of statute, was unconstitutionally indistinguishable in its language, allowing the obscenity prosecution as a sort of racketeering, although it held that pretrial seizure of allegedly obscene books and films breached the First Amendment, thus, prior restraint. The defendant’s challenge was because the statute was unconstitutional as it allowed the seizure of his entire inventory (Moore, Murray, Youm, & Farrell, 2022). Consequently, the Court affirmed that his assets might not be apprehended unless accurate safeguards provided in Freedman v. Maryland, along with other cases applied, did not eliminate the statute.
Impact on Digital Communication Practices and Law
The ruling assisted in empowering and strengthening states in controlling the dissemination of information to the citizens for accountability and checks. Regulating and controlling the business of bookstore operators is vital to prohibit filthy, lewd, or disgusting images or words as this breaches contemporary society standards and lacks serious political, artistic, scientific, or literary value (Findlaw, 2022). The ruling provided future clarity on the RICO statute and CRRA on obscenity cases.
Content and Messaging Changes Created for Fort Wayne Books v. Indiana (1989)
The statute that aims to suppress speech may be upheld only when it acts as a compelling interest of the government and less restrictive implies promoting that interest. The best legal practices state that digital companies need to adhere to ethical standards of offering decent content to the public. Owners of bookstores should legally supply materials to promote contemporary community value by supporting literary, artistic, scientific, or political aspects in society (Moore, Murray, Youm, & Farrell, 2022). The deterrence of selling obscene books or films is a legitimate state obscenity law culmination.
California v. FCC (1988)
Case Summary
Sable Communications filed a suit against the FCC to seek a declaratory decision that the obscenity and indecency parts of the amendment breached the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The US Supreme Court in this case upheld the District Court judgment that the indecency provision of the amendment breached the US Constitution and not the obscenity provision. The Court ruled in an opinion of six-to-three written by Justice White. It stated that the law has an invalid influence of restricting the content of adult discussions to that, which is appropriate for children to hear. Sable Communications has been operating in the dial-a-porn message business since 1983. The judge at District Court upheld the ban on obscene messages, even though enjoined the enforcement against indecent messages Act (Moore, Murray, Youm, & Farrell, 2022). The Supreme Court upheld a District Court ruling for obscene messages.
Effect on Digital Communication Practices and Law
The Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the District Court as the First Amendment fails to protect the obscene message, as the Court discovered in Paris Adult Theater I v. Slaton (1973). Therefore, the prohibition on the obscene message was legitimate (Findlaw, 2022). Hence, banning adults from accessing indecent messages surpasses that, which is vital to protect minors from dial-a-porn services.
Content and Messaging Changes Made because of California v. FCC (1988)
The law led to a ban on the transmission of indecent and obscene commercial telephone messages. It was guided that because anybody with access to a phone comprising children might access the messages; hence, the need to control minors’ access to the messages while still permitting adults access. The best legal practices as made in the case the court shunned creating a bad law by preserving the duality of regulations on obscene and indecent messages. Regulated firms are assured returns on their investments for providing the best services to citizens (Haydel, 2022). Digital communications should adhere to providing decent messages devoid of obscene materials.
Conclusion
The most important cases are the ones that have had a lasting influence on the use of a given law, often about citizens’ liberties and rights. The three cases have shown that landmark rulings have a significant effect on digital communications practices and law. For example, promoting children rights by protecting the rights of those whose images have been morphed for use in pornographic videos has changed the way people possess and distribute pornographic materials.
References
Federman, C. (2021). Varieties of censorship: Hate speech, pornography, and the First Amendment. First Amendment Studies, 55(2), 126-147. Web.
Findlaw. (2022). FindLaw’s United States Supreme Court case and opinions. Web.
Haydel, J. (2022). Sable communications of California v. Federal communications commission. Web.
Jung, K. H. (2022). Freedom t eedom to Morph? An Analysis of Morphed Imager or Morph? An Analysis of Morphed Imagery, Child , Child Pornography, and the First Amendment. Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology, 30(2), 33-64.
Moore, R. L., Murray, M. D., Youm, K. H., & Farrell, M. (2022). Media law and ethics (6th ed.). New York: Routledge.
Steinberg, S. B. (2019). Changing Faces: Morphed Child Pornography Images and the First Amendment. Emory Law Journal, 68(909), 910-937.
Wiggins, C. (2022). Fort Wayne books, Inc. v. Indiana. Web.