Art.Net

Art.Net is a non-profit web-based artist collective of more than 450 artists, poets, musicians, painters, sculptors, animators, hacker artists, and other creative people from around the world, aimed at helping artists share their works on the World Wide Web. Also known as Art on the Net, the site was established in June, 1994 with a manifesto and statement of purpose as an Internet art project site and online art gallery.
Artists create and maintain studio web spaces on the site and gallery pages where they show their works and share information about themselves. Artists are also encouraged to collaborate and to help each other promote and improve their art. They can learn how to curate and show their art work via the web. Several member artists also teach art in their studio spaces located on Art.Net. Art.Net is open to new artists and new areas. New artists are invited to join and submit their work for display. The site provides and supports a variety of online art resources.
Art.Net is owned and operated by the member artists, and has been active in defending free speech on the Internet. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Art.Net has been involved in many court cases defending freedom of speech on the Internet. In each case, members were asked to testify in court about how laws censoring content on the Internet prevented the sharing of art due to fear of prosecution. There have been four such cases, in four different states. Each was successful in bringing injunctions against laws, preventing their enforcement. This happened during the time that each state was trying to create local Communications Decency Act (CDA) laws for their local states.

The website does not censor the artists or their works posted on the site; artists are requested to share their art in a non-commercial way. Artists retain all rights to their works shown on Art.Net. The site typically receives more than 65,000 page views per day from more than 14,000 unique visitors. It has won several awards.
was added on the site.
March, 1997 - joined in the lawsuit ALA v. Pataki as a plaintiff to challenge New York's Internet censorship law. Art.Net
was placed in jeopardy to help defend freedom of speech on the Internet by joining this case. If it had lost, there would have been a strong chance that the site must shut down because of censorship laws. Represented by the ACLU, the case was won for the plaintiffs Art.Net and many others, and a preliminary injunction against New York's censorship law, preserving freedom of speech on the Internet, was issued.
June, 1998 - joined in the lawsuit ACLU v. Johnson as a plaintiff to challenge New Mexico's online censorship law. This was
an important case because even though the ACLU won, the case was appealed by New Mexico. The appeals court upheld the ruling, so now this case is a federal precedent, supporting the freedom of speech on the Internet for all U.S. citizens.
June 1999 - joined as a plaintiff in Cyberspace v. Engler, with the ACLU, challenging Michigan's cyber-censorship law, citing the US Constitution's commerce clause and free speech rights. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, again upholding the right of free speech on the Internet.
March 2002 - in the article, Fahrenheit 451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning?,<ref name="Fahrenheit451.2"/>
the Internet is shown to deserve the same high level of free speech protection afforded to books and other printed matter. Art.Net is shown as an example of why self-rating is burdensome, unwieldy, and costly for websites to implement.

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