Washington -- With the Supreme Court returning today (Oct.
4) for a new term, Playboy Entertainment Group Inc. is hoping that it will strike down a
1996 channel-blocking law than banished adult programming largely to late-night hours.
In a 51-page brief filed last Monday, Playboy urged the
court to sustain a lower court's holding that the law violated the adult programmer's
First Amendment rights.
Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress tried to
stop erotic sounds and pictures from bleeding into unscrambled networks in an effort to
prevent children from being exposed to pornography.
The law ordered cable operators to air Playboy only between
10 p.m. and 6 a.m. if they were unwilling to fully scramble the signal.
Playboy said the scrambling costs were so high that
operators opted for the time-channeling option, costing the company millions of dollars in
lost revenue.
