Get INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND FREE SPEECH IN THE ONLINE ... - Fepproject

The categories of unprotected speech include obscenity, child ography, defamatory speech, false advertising, true threats, and fighting words.

We must be vigilant to ensure that intellectual property laws continue to serve the First Amendment and do not become the means to gum up the marketplace of ideas. Laws protecting intellectual property—patents, copyrights, and trademarks—can both advance free speech and pose significant threats to civil liberties.

Categories of speech that are given lesser or no protection by the First Amendment (and therefore may be restricted) include obscenity, fraud, child ography, speech integral to illegal conduct, speech that incites imminent lawless action, speech that violates intellectual property law, true threats, false ...

The Court generally identifies these categories as obscenity, defamation, fraud, incitement, fighting words, true threats, speech integral to criminal conduct, and child ography.

The categories of unprotected speech include obscenity, child ography, defamatory speech, false advertising, true threats, and fighting words. Deciding what is and is not protected speech is reserved to courts of law. The First Amendment only prevents government restrictions on speech.

1. The First Amendment's protections apply to online speech as much as to offline speech. The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the freedom of speech.” This core principle applies whether the speech in question is shared in a public square or on the internet.

For example, freedom of expression may be limited by laws against hate propaganda or child ography because they prevent harm to individuals and groups.

In that case, Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, the Supreme Court held that the government can no more restrict a person's access to words or images on the Internet than it can snatch a book out of someone's hands or cover up a nude statue in a museum.