Richard G. Epstein

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COURT REFUSES TO SHUT
DOWN "ANIMAL FARM"

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Global Landscape Site

Caters to Clientele that

Practices Virtual Bestiality

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Officials of Islamic Federation,

Israel and India Protest

"America's Sewer"

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Special to the Sentinel-Observer

by

Rosie Simmons

A Federal Court in Philadelphia ruled today that Congress does not have the right to outlaw sites on the Global Landscape that cater to particular forms of virtual sex merely on the grounds that a vast majority of Americans might find these practices "offensive and disgusting". Attorney General Martha Sanderson, who presented the government's case, promised to appeal the ruling to the United States Supreme Court.

The decision created a firestorm of protest not only here in the States, but especially overseas. For the first time in the twenty year history of the Global Landscape there is talk that the Landscape might break apart along fissures that correspond to clashing cultural values. There is mounting dissatisfaction with the pornographic entertainments that permeate the Global Landscape in countries that are fighting to preserve their own traditional values and way of life. These include all of the nations in the Islamic Federation, Israel, India, and China. In addition, Pope Paul VIII has issued strongly worded homilies that attack Global Landscape entertainments and the depravity that they represent.

Domestically, religious groups and groups of concerned parents are fighting a losing battle to stem the tide of pornographic entertainments, as evidenced by this latest court decision. These domestic groups have been ineffectual because they do not have the economic clout to affect decisions at the level of the Global Landscape Cooperative (GLC) , the international governing board that manages and maintains the Global Landscape.

As McNeil Pulitzer has often reported in the pages of this newspaper, the GLC is dominated by approximately ten gigantic megacorporations. Insofar as these megacorporations are concerned, pornography is a spectacularly successful business, so it is unlikely that the GLC will act to stem the tide of pornographic virtual realities and virtual sex. This morning's threat by the Islamic Federation to withdraw from the Global Landscape is certain to force the GLC to reconsider their cost-benefits approach to the promotion of pornography.

The Islamic Federation met in an emergency session in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, immediately after the Philadelphia court made its decision. Anbassador Jamal Faisal, the Saudi representative to the Islamic Federation and its president, made the dramatic announcement that the Federation had voted to begin plans to develop an "Islamic Landscape" that would be separate from the Global Landscape and that would "promote the economic well-being of the Islamic world while protecting the moral values of Islam and of the community of believers." Ambassador Faisal also serves as the Saudi ambassador to the United Nations.

Ambassador Faisal did not offer specifics concerning the proposed Islamic Landscape, nor did he specify a deadline by which time Islamic concerns would have to be met. However, Ambassador Faisal did warn that the Islamic Federation was considering a boycott of American products unless the United States "cleans up this offensive sewer that is polluting the entire earth."

Reaction to the American court's decision poured in from other foreign capitals. Indian Prime Minister Shiv Sawarthy called the court's decision, "another indication that American cultural imperialism is completely out of control." Mr. Sawarthy told reporters that "the Americans promote their cultural values of materialism and sexual license without any constraint or sense of humility. It is time that we rise up against the Pax Americana, which really should be called the Pox Americana."

In a fiery speech before the Israeli Knesset, which was emotional even by Israeli standards, National Religious Party leader Rabbi Chaim Sefardi demanded that Israel withdraw from the Global Landscape, calling it "a sewer that is destroying the spiritual and moral fiber of the Jewish nation." Threatening to withdraw from Israel's ruling coalition government unless the Prime Minister acceded to his demands, Rabbi Sefardi said that "Israel must withdraw from the Global Landscape regardless of the economic costs. It is better to ride camels and to survive on oranges than to watch our young children swept away into the stinking effluence of the American sewer."

At issue in the Philadelphia case was the notorious "Animal Farm" site on the Global Landscape that caters to people who enjoy having virtual sex with animals. Using self-projection technology, the Animal Farm clientele can obtain sexual gratification by simulating sex with a variety of farm animals, including dogs, sheep and goats.

Last year, spurred on by thousands of letters from concerned parents and outraged religious groups, the Congress passed and the President signed, a bill that would make it illegal for any American enterprise on the Global Landscape to offer virtual bestiality services. Furthermore, the bill prohibited the import of such services from Global Landscape servers in Europe and Asia. This law was immediately challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and Monty Maxwell, the Nebraska multi-billionaire and business tycoon who runs the Animal Farm site in cyberspace.

"This was a First Amendment issue if there ever was one," a smiling Monty Maxwell told reporters outside the Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia as he affectionately petted his pet Pekingese. "If they could close down our virtual bestiality site, then what about those other virtual sex sites, the ones that cater to more mainstream interests, like having virtual sex with children?"

In the opinion issued by a three-judge panel, the judges declared that Congress does not have the right to regulate one specific kind of virtual sex as opposed to another, for doing so would threaten the First Amendment rights of those who enjoy this kind of recreation. "The Courts have been reluctant to regulate sex on the Global Landscape simply because this computer infrastructure has become the main forum for the free expression of ideas, no matter how repugnant they might seem," the court stated in its fifty-six page opinion.

The opinion went on to state that Congress "failed to show that there was a compelling public interest in closing down the virtual bestiality sites when, in fact, the Congress has ignored dozens of other forms of virtual sex that are available using self-projection technology. Therefore, the members of this court, while not disagreeing with the Attorney General's assertion that the Animal Farm site is especially offensive, cannot uphold a law that is this selective and discriminatory in its focus."

President Hinson, speaking before a group of lawyers at an ABA convention in San Diego, called the court's decision "regrettable". He asked Congress to pass new legislation that would provide more sweeping powers to regulate virtual sex over the Global Landscape. The President's call for new virtual sex legislation was greeted coolly by the assembled lawyers.

Jack Torro, a defense attorney from Ohio who attended the President's speech, said that there really is no way to legislate sex in cyberspace. "The Congress is between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, the Courts have struck down all general legislation that was aimed at controlling pornography over the Global Landscape and, before that, the World Wide Web. Now, we see that the Courts will not uphold narrowly focused legislation that targets specific forms of virtual sex. I think that parents need to take responsibility for the way in which their children are self-projecting into cyberspace."

It is widely known that the virtual sex using self-projection technology is the hottest growth industry on the Global Landscape. Nearly from the inception of self-projection technology several years ago, there has been a great demand for services that would allow people to satisfy a mind-boggling variety of sexual appetites.

"Animal Farm" gained especial notoriety early last year when Senator Thomas Kinney (R-FL) was caught with a virtual sheep by an investigative reporter for the Washington Post, who was working undercover at the bestiality site.

Professor Susan Amos, of the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs at Princeton University, fears that cultural values will divide the world into two camps: those who maintain traditional moral restraints and those who believe in complete sexual license. "There have been several great cultural divides since the Second World War, and each has been the potential source of war. First we had communism versus capitalism, then the rich versus the poor, and now we have those who believe in some sacred tradition and those who do not. I think this new fissure is the most dangerous of all.

"The Global Landscape is the basic business infrastructure for all countries that want to participate in the global economy," Professor Amos added. "The Islamic Federation and other countries that believe in traditional values were forced to participate in this new infosphere in order to compete and in order to enjoy the economic benefits of the Pax Americana. They are beginning to come to the conclusion, however, that the economic benefits are no longer worth the cost of eroding moral and ethical values. America should be concerned that India, Israel and China could have arsenal ships armed with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles off of our shores within ten years. We are not the only country that has the technological know-how to intimidate other countries."

Professor Amos admitted that her sympathies lie with the Islamic Federation, Israel, India and other countries that are beginning to assert their own traditional values in face of the American cultural onslaught. "What does it say about America when it is reported that many tens of thousands of Americans have visited Animal Farm and when it is reported that millions of Americans engage in some form of virtual sex using self-projection technology, including virtual sex with children, over the Global Landscape?"

For the first time since the creation of the Global Landscape twenty years ago, there is serious talk of the break-up of the Landscape over these cultural issues. India, a country that has a long history of conflict with its Islamic neighbor, Pakistan, is reportedly sending out diplomatic feelers to the effect that India would like to participate in the Islamic Landscape, should one be created. The religious parties in Israel, including the National Religious Party of Rabbi Sefardi, have also been hinting that an alternative Landscape would be acceptable to them, although the would prefer that it not be called the "Islamic Landscape".

President Hinson asserted that the break-up of the Global Landscape would be "an international catastrophe of the first magnitude." He cited the robust world economy and the benefits of the Pax Americana that has lasted since the turn of the millennium. He reminded the members of the Islamic Federation that American remote-controlled arsenal ships are the backbone of world peace.

"I think the solution for those overseas who have religious sensibilities is to filter out what they find objectionable over the existing Global Landscape. I think that a separate, Islamic Landscape, would be a catastrophe for world peace. It is not the sort of thing that the United States could tolerate."

The President scoffed at the threat of an Islamic boycott of American products. "I believe that this is just rhetoric. I don't think any country or group of countries can prosper without trading with the world's foremost economic power, which is the United States."

The international reaction to the Philadelphia decision overshadowed the domestic reaction, which was predictable. Civil libertarians praised the court for its defense of First Amendment rights. Religious groups and groups of concerned parents attacked the court for its lack of foresight and moral courage.

May Stockton of Parents for a Clean Landscape was critical of the court's decision. "This idea that parents need to protect their children is ludicrous. Children have access to pornographic self-projection technology at the library, in their schools, and at the various virtual reality emporia. Things are totally out of our control. I cannot imagine that this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they incorporated the Bill of Rights into the Constitution."