How are Book Bans Constitutional?

/home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 135 points –

I know Florida, Texas, and other counties have tried and succeeded to ban books, I wonder how that is even legal since we have the first amendment. I tried doing research on this since Huntington Beach is banning books and people were petitioning against that at the main library.

I made a little post asking people to petition on the Orange County sub.

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As the author of that book is now dead since more than 70 years, the copyright has expired and it theoretically can be reproduced. It may be still on a list as 'harmful for young persons', propaganda or alike.

The Netherlands use the same copyright laws?

I always assumed that was just the US copyright system

European copyright laws are different from US ones in many ways, but "life of the author plus 70 years" is definitely a thing in Europe.

I really hope there isn't a more generous system than what the US has. It's stupid long as-is.

My assumption is that because “the state claimed the rights” for that specific book makes me think this is a special case in their laws

Can a US state or the federal government claim the right to someone else’s writing?

It was not directly the state claiming ownership of that book just because. After WWII ended, the alliites confiscated all assets of those who were deemed most responsible for the war including Adolf Hitler and his rights on Mein Kampf. This yielded later, as Munich officially was Hitler's last place of residence, to the state of Bavaria owning the rights on that book.