Have you heard we're banning books?

[mrgorth]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/entertainment/10385562.htm

<snip>
In an apparent reversal of decades of U.S. practice, recent federal Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American companies from publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first obtain U.S. government approval.

The restriction, condemned by critics as a violation of the First Amendment, means that books and other works banned by some totalitarian regimes cannot be published freely in the United States.

"It strikes me as very odd," said Douglas Kmiec, a constitutional law professor at Pepperdine University and former legal counsel to former Presidents Reagan and Bush. "I think the government has an uphill struggle to justify this constitutionally."

Several groups, led by the PEN American Center and including Arcade Publishing, filed suit in U.S. District Court in New York to overturn the regulations, which cover writers in Iran, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea and, until recently, Iraq.

Violations carry severe reprisals - publishing houses can be fined $1 million and individual violators face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

"Historically, the United States has served as a megaphone for dissidents from other countries," said Ed Davis of New York, a lawyer leading the PEN challenge. "Now we're not able to hear from dissidents."

Yet more than dissident voices are affected. The regulations have led publishers to scrap plans for volumes on Cuban architecture and birds, and publishers say the rules threaten the intellectual breadth and independence of academic journals.

Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has joined the suit, arguing that the rules preclude American publishers from helping craft her memoirs of surviving Iran's Islamic revolution and her efforts to defend human rights in Iran.

"It's absolutely against the First Amendment," said Arcade editor Richard Seaver, who hopes to publish a book of Iranian stories.
<snip>

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Hitler is coming!

:scared:

[m0nkeyneck]

2. that is below average

;-(

[newyawker99]

5. Hi m0nkeyneck!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[RafterMan]

3. What's the point?

You can still publish the latest bin Laden video from Pakistan, but need government approval for the Nobel Prize winner from Iran? And no country on that list has enough money to sell out to.

I can't even imagine what the people who came up with this think the purpose is.

[Fifth of Five]

4. Purpose?

Precedent for denying publication of "dissident" American writings?

[JohnKleeb]

6. we've been banning books

Anyone hear of PABBIS?

[blondeatlast]

7. Holy schist! I'll make sure a load of librarians knows about this

tomorrow!

Un-effing-believable.