Psinet, Inc. v. Chapman
| Decision Date | 08 August 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV. A. 3:99CV00111.,CIV. A. 3:99CV00111. |
| Citation | 108 F.Supp.2d 611 |
| Parties | PSINET INC., et al., Plaintiffs, v. Warner D. CHAPMAN, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia |
Garrett M. Smith, Michie, Hamlett, Lowry, Rasmussen & Tweel, P.C., Charlottesville, VA, Norman Christopher Hardee, Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Washington, DC, John Joshua Wheeler, Charlottesville, VA, for Plaintiffs.
Mark L. Earley, William Henry Hurd, Office of Attorney General, Richmond, VA, John Walter Zunka, Taylor & Zunka, Ltd., Charlottesville, VA, Alvaro A. Inigo, Taylor, Zunka, Milnor & Carter, Charlottesville, VA, Mark A. Trank, Larry Wade Davis, Office of County Attorney, Charlottesville, VA, for Defendants.
Business plaintiffs PSINet, Inc., Charlottesville Sexual Health & Wellness Clinic, Portico Publications Ltd., Silverchair Science + Communications, Inc., Rockbridge Global Village, Sexual Health Network, A Different Light Bookstores, Lambda Rising Bookstores, and Bibliobytes, Inc. joined by membership organization plaintiffs, The Commercial Internet Exchange Association, Virginia ISP Alliance, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, Periodical and Book Association of America, Inc., Freedom to Read Foundation, The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and People for the American Way and individual plaintiffs, Chris Filkins, Harlan Ellison, and Susie Bright filed suit against defendants Warner D. Chapman and James L. Camblos, III, Commonwealth Attorneys, and Julian Rittenhouse and John F. Miller, Chiefs of Police, on December 15, 1999, invoking federal jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343(a)(3), 2201 and 42 U.S.C § 1983, 1988.1 Upon receipt of a stipulated order signed by counsel for the parties, the court dismissed defendants Julian Rittenhouse and John F. Miller from the case. On February 15, 2000, the court heard arguments from counsel on plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction. Prior to the hearing date, the court had received the parties' memoranda and supporting affidavits. At the hearing, additional exhibits also were admitted. Following the hearing, the defendants filed a motion to hold the proceedings in abeyance pending action of the Virginia legislature. Subsequent to this motion, and pursuant to the action of the legislature, the court ordered that the parties file supplemental memoranda regarding the plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction. Having thoroughly considered the issue, the court finds that an injunction is appropriate for this case, and thus grants the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction.
Plaintiffs represent a spectrum of businesses, membership organizations, and individuals — including Internet service providers, organizations representing booksellers, publishers, and other media interests, online businesses, individual authors and artists, and others — who use the Internet to communicate, disseminate, display, and to seek access to a broad range of speech. Plaintiffs communicate online both within and from outside the Commonwealth of Virginia, and plaintiffs' speech is accessible both within and outside of Virginia. All of the plaintiffs utilize the Internet to further their business and organizational goals. Plaintiffs all fear that their online speech could be considered "harmful to juveniles" in some communities under the statute in question, Va.Code Ann. § 18.2-391 (Michie Supp.1999) (amended 2000), even though that speech may receive full constitutional protection as to adults.
Based on the pleadings of the parties and the findings of other federal courts and the Supreme Court, this court finds the following factual information about the Internet relevant to the underpinnings of this legal opinion.2
The Internet is a decentralized, global medium of communications that links people, institutions, corporations, and governments around the world. Host computers — those storing information and relaying communications on the Internet —number in the tens of millions, and personal computers accessing the Internet have been estimated to number in the hundreds of millions. See Reno, 521 U.S. at 849, 117 S.Ct. 2329; Cyberspace, 55 F.Supp.2d at 741. The information available on the Internet is of very diverse subject matter. At any given moment, the Internet also serves as a communication medium for literally tens of thousands of conversations, debates, and social dialogues. Content ranges from academic writings, to art and literature, to medical information, to music, to news and other information, some of which contains sexually explicit material.
The Internet is distinguishable from traditional media because the Internet simply links together enormous numbers of individual computers and computer networks; therefore, no single entity or group controls the content that is available on the Internet, or the access to that content. There is no centralized point from which individual Web sites or services can be blocked. See Reno, 521 U.S. at 852, 117 S.Ct. 2329. Rather, the almost infinite range of information available on the Internet is supplied by millions of users on millions of separate computers around the world. The Internet also differs from traditional media in that it provides users with an unprecedented ability to interact with other users and content. Communications on the Internet do not "invade" an individual's home or appear on one's computer screen unbidden. Rather, the receipt of information "requires a series of affirmative steps more deliberate and directed than merely turning a dial." Reno, 521 U.S. at 854, 117 S.Ct. 2329.
Individuals may obtain access to the Internet in several ways. Internet service providers ("ISPs"), such as plaintiff PSI-Net, offer their subscribers access to computers or networks linked directly to the Internet. Most ISPs charge a monthly fee, but some provide free or low-cost access. In addition, national "commercial online services" (such as America Online3) not only serve as ISPs, but also provide subscribers services, such as monitored chat rooms, and access to proprietary content on their own networks. Many educational institutions, libraries, businesses, and other entities maintain computer networks linked directly to the Internet.
There are a variety of ways for communicating and exchanging information with other users on the Internet. The primary methods include: (1) email, which enables an individual to send an electronic message generally akin to a note or letter to an individual address or to a group of addresses; (2) instant messaging, which allows an online user to address and transmit an electronic message to one or more people with little delay between the sending of an instant message and its receipt by the addressees; (3) online discussion groups, such as "chat rooms," thousands of which have been organized by individuals, institutions, and organizations; and (4) the World Wide Web, which is currently the most popular way to provide and retrieve information on the Internet. Anyone with access to the Internet and proper software can post content on the Web, which can then be accessed by any other user anywhere in the world. The Web comprises millions of separate interconnected "Web sites" that may in turn have hundreds of separate "pages" displaying content provided by the particular person or organization that created the site.
There are a number of ways that Internet users can browse or search for content on the Web. First, every document on the Web has a virtual "address" that allows users to find and retrieve that document by entering the address into their browser. Second, a user may conduct a "search" for a particular site or kind of site by using one of a number of search "engines," which are free software available to help users navigate the Web. The user simply types a word or words as a search request, and the search engine provides a list of sites that match the search terms. The user must then affirmatively elect to view information on a particular site. Online users may also "surf" the Web by "linking" directly from one Web page to another. Almost all Web documents contain "links," which are short sections of text or images that are electronically connected to another Web document. "These links from one computer to another, from one document to another across the Internet, are what unify the Web into a single body of knowledge, and what makes the Web unique." Reno, 929 F.Supp. at 836-37.
For most communications over the Internet, the speaker has little or no effective control over whether minors or adults are able to gain access to his communications. See Reno, 521 U.S. at 855-56. In addition, speakers who publish on the Web generally make their materials publicly available to users around the world, regardless of age, and lack any practical or reliable means for preventing minors from gaining access to the information on their sites or for verifying the true age of users of their Web sites. The Internet also is wholly insensitive to geographic distinctions, and Internet protocols were designed to ignore rather than to document geographic location. While computers on the Internet do have "addresses," they are addresses on the network rather than geographic addresses in real space. Most Internet addresses contain no geographic information at all. An Internet user who posts a Web page in one state cannot readily prevent residents of other states from viewing that page, or even discern in which state visitors to the site reside. See American Libraries Ass'n. v. Pataki, 969 F.Supp. 160, 171 (S.D.N.Y.1997). Participants in online chat rooms and discussion groups have no way to tell when participants from another state join the conversation. See id. There is no practical way for an Internet speaker to prevent a message from reaching...
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Psinet, Inc. v. Chapman
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Table of Cases
...(Ind. 2005), 1036 Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74, 100 S.Ct. 2035, 64 L.Ed.2d 741 (1980), 984 PSINet, Inc. v. Chapman, 108 F.Supp.2d 611 (W.D. Va. 2000), 879 Ptasynski, United States v., 462 U.S. 74, 103 S.Ct. 2239, 76 L.Ed.,2d 427 (1983), 740 Public Citizen v. United State......