A federal district court in Philadelphia struck down the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that would impose stiff fines and prison sentences on anyone who publishes sexually explicit materials on the Internet. Even President Clinton supported the Act, which, of course, was supported by the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Zondervan, however, took as its official position, according to the Globe, that the judge's action of striking down the ban on pornography was ``a victory for free speech and as an affirmation for the call to responsibility in free speech.'' The Globe also says Zondervan quoted the book of Proverbs in its statement.
Zondervan did not, of course, say that it liked pornography, but opposing any effort to regulate it amounts to much the same thing.
The Globe quotes this from a Web document that seems by now (May 1997) to have been removed and replaced with a rather vapid call for people to voluntarily refrain from unpleasantness on the Net, without taking any position on the Communications Decency Act.
The relevance of this is is that it seems Zondervan has taken leftwing positions in the past (if I may so call a position to the left of President Clinton) and then retreated.
Zondervan's Press Release on the ``Free Speech Internet Campaign'' This link was also on the Harper-Collins page, but the link seems to have been disconnected there as of May 26, 1997. I am not sure whether this is the original May 1996 press release, or a revised version.