With all due respect to Professor Wu, his take on US obscenity law is incorrect.

In his piece entitled "American Lawbreaking," Prof. Wu writes that "In the Unites States, using a computer to download obscenity is a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison."

This is incorrect. Federal obscenity law does not apply to consumption of obscene materials in the private home (see Stanley v. Georgia).

Under the example posed by Prof. Wu, the webmaster who owns the site with the allegedly obscene material could be found guilty of interstate distribution of obscenity, but the consumer would not be prosecuted.

A plain language reading of the statute is insufficient for analysis where obscenity law is concerned. One must also consider the intrepretative caselaw. With respect to distribution of obscene materials, I would suggest Stanley v. Georgia as a good first stop for your future analysis.