The Members Forum

The legendary Grammy-winning comedian, who died in 2008, was slapped down by the Federal Communications Commission in the 1970s for his "Seven Dirty Words" monologue. The U.S. Supreme Court gravely concluded that the 12-minute monologue was illegal to broadcast.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the year 2010. The Internet grew even faster than the federal deficit, wireless devices sprouted like Obama stickers on Priuses, and American consumers were forced to pay for V-chips in their televisions, whether or not they wanted any.

Which is why a federal appeals court on Tuesday said that technological advances have ripped away the underpinnings of the FCC's "indecency" regulations. Forget Nipplegate: FCC attorneys have insisted for decades that they have the constitutional authority to punish radio and TV broadcasters who dare to transmit even a few syllables from Carlin's list of naughty words.

"We face a media landscape that would have been almost unrecognizable in 1978," the Second Circuit Court of Appeals concluded in a 3-0 opinion (PDF). "Cable television was still in its infancy. The Internet was a project run out of the Department of Defense with several hundred users. Not only did YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter not exist, but their founders were either still in diapers or not yet conceived."

In the seminal 1978 case arising from Carlin's monologue, the Supreme Court said FCC regulations banning four-letter words were appropriate because "the broadcast media have established a uniquely pervasive presence in the lives of all Americans." In addition, the opinion written by Justice Paul Stevens said, "broadcasting is uniquely accessible to children," because there's no way to block it.

Cnet has the details HERE!