Eric-GCA said:
And the bill hardly restricts speech as you paranoia-types are blathering, all it does is increase a fine that was already in place. jeez.
The standard fine currently in place is $27,500. Now, to me, that seems a tad high for a bare glimpse of boobie or an inadvertant bit of profanity, but not entirely unreasonable. Today the Senate decided to make the minimum fine ten times that amount which seems, shall we say, a tad excessive. I mean, I'm pretty sure indecent material isn't ten times more harmful today than it was a year ago.
In fact, a $275,000 fine seems pretty damn steep no matter how you look at it. I'm not a lawyer and I'm not regularly down at the courthouse racking up fines, so I'm not entirely sure where this level of fine falls in the range of criminal activity. So, I decided to poke around for the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and see if they offered any helpful suggestions. These may be a bit out of date, but take a look at
these 1997 Federal Sentencing Guidelines. It's a PDF, so I can't just quote here, but you'll find the relevent info on page 24, which is to say a chart detailing an Offense Level, a Minimum Fine, and a Maximum Fine. It starts here:
Offense Level: 3 and below
Minimum Fine: $100
Maximum Fine: $5,000
And goes all the way up to:
Offense Level: 38 and above
Minimum Fine: $25,000
Maximum Fine: $250,000
Now, I'm not entirely sure what an Offense Level is, so I went poking around
the Federal Sentencing Guidelines table of contents to see what popped up. Here's a few examples, and the Base Offense Level for each:
First Degree Murder: 43
Second Degree Murder: 33
Aggravated Assault: 15
Minor Asault: 6 with a weapon, 3 without
Criminal Sexual Abuse: 27
And, my personal favorite:
Air Piracy: 38
Now, granted, the minimum indecency fines approved today don't carry a prison sentence with them, but still, based on these Federal Guidelines, broadcasting indecent or obscene material carries the maximum fine for, say, hijacking a plane.
Oh, and in case you're wondering:
Broadcasting Obscene Material: 12
Per the fine table I mentioned earlier, an Offense Level of 12-13 carries with it a minimum fine of $3,000 and a maximum fine of $30,000. I should mention that there is a distinct (and rather vague) legal distinction between Indecency and Obscenity.
Now, as mentioned, I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me - and, to the government itself as of a few years ago - that the current minimum fine is, in technical, legal jargon, fucking ludicrous.
I leave the notion of how the threat receiving $275,000 minimal fines and upwards of $3 million dollars in fines per day might hamper free speach as a lesson for the reader.
FnordChan
