Photo Stamps
I just found out about Photo Stamps, which I think is a fun idea. You get to upload your own images that will be printed as legal US postage and sent to you. It is a little pricey, about twice as much as regular stamps, with a minimum order of a sheet of 20 stamps costing about $20. Of course, you can’t use copyrighted or objectional images:
You further agree not to use the Customized Postage website or service:
A. For any unlawful purposes
B. To upload, order for print, or otherwise transmit or communicate any material that is obscene, offensive, blasphemous, pornographic, unlawful, deceptive, threatening, menacing, abusive, harmful, an invasion of privacy or publicity rights, supportive of unlawful action, defamatory, libelous, vulgar, illegal or otherwise objectionable
The guy at Smoking Gun decided to find the limits of what stamps.com considers objectionable. He got some interesting photo stamps past the screening process and he posted them online.
September 13th, 2004 at 11:29 am
I’ve always wondered who officially declares that an image falls into these categories. What if somebody wants stamp of a nude painting from the Renaissance? Or perhaps a stamp of the crucifiction around Easter time? Would they veto those?
Yet another corporate violation of our first amendment rights, if you ask me…
September 21st, 2004 at 8:30 am
I think the problem with “decency” is that it is subjective and has local standards. The reason our laws are called “common laws” is because they enforce “what makes sense.”
This reminds me of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) that was law while I was in college. The lawmakers said they were trying to make child porn illegal, but it already was. This Act actually made any “offensive” materials illegal on the Internet, possibly including historical works of art and safe sex educational material. Fortunately, it was struck down by the Supreme Court as a violation of the First Amendment rights.
The lawmakers are tricker nowadays and get laws in place like DMCA and UCITA, and people are unaware of their impacts. A lot of these laws effect us through technology, so people may not understand that very well.