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The Center for Democracy and Technology /____/ Volume 2, Number 5
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A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online
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CDT POLICY POST Volume 2, Number 5 February 1, 1996
CONTENTS: (1) Congress Passes Online Indecency Bill, Clinton Expected to Sign,
CDT Plans Court Challenge
(2) Subscription Information
(3) About CDT, contacting us
This document may be redistributed freely provided it remains in its entirety
** Excerpts may be re-posted by permission (editor@cdt.org) **
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(1) Congress Passes Online Indecency Bill, Clinton Expected to Sign,
CDT Plans Court Challenge
By overwhelming margins in both the House and Senate, Congress today (2/1) approved
legislation to dramatically restrict the First Amendment rights of Internet users.
With this act of Congress, the very same materials which are legally available today
in book stores and libraries would be illegal if posted on World Wide Web sites or
usenet newsgroups. If signed by President Clinton as expected, this bill will transform
the Internet overnight from the freest communications medium to the most heavily
regulated medium in the United States.
CDT believes this legislation is unconstitutional. We are committed to challenging
it in the courts at the earliest possible opportunity.
Despite the sustained effort over the past 12 months by Senators Leahy (D-VT),
Feingold (D-WI), and Representatives Chris Cox (R-CA), Rick White (R-WA), and Ron
Wyden (D-OR) to defeat the bill, the House passed the measure on a vote of 414 - 16,
while the Senate concurred a few hours later on a vote of 91 - 5. Ironically, the
vote comes exactly one year to the day that Senator Exon (D-NE) originally introduced
the proposal (2/1/95).
CONGRESS MAKES CRIMINALS OF MOST INTERNET USERS
The Communications Decency Act, enacted as part of a massive telecommunications
reform legislation, will impose $250,000 fines and prison terms for anyone who
posts "indecent" material, including the "7 dirty words", the text of classic
works of fiction such as The Catcher In The Rye or Ulysses, artwork containing
images of nudes, or rap lyrics, in a public forum.
CDT strongly opposes this legislation. We believe the bill threatens the very
existence of the Internet as a means for free expression, education, and political
discourse. The bill is an unwarranted, unconstitutional intrusion by the Federal
government into the private lives of all Americans.
Although the free speech rights of Internet users and the free flow of information
online received a major setback today, the battle is far from over. President Clinton
is expected to sign the legislation in the coming days. Several civil liberties and
public interest advocacy groups, including CDT, People for the American Way, EFF, and
the ACLU are already preparing to challenge these new restrictions in court. Other
affected entities, including commercial content providers, Internet Service Providers,
and the commercial online services industries, are also expected to mount court
challenges to this legislation. CDT is confident that the courts will find the
Communications Decency Act unconstitutional and reject it outright.
INTERNET COMMUNITY ACTIVISM MADE A CRITICAL DIFFERENCE
Although the CDA passed by Congress today represents a significant threat to the
viability of the Internet and the free speech rights of individual users, the
efforts of the Internet.community to mobilize against the bill kept it from being
a lot worse.
The Christian Coalition, with the support of House Judiciary Committee Chairman
Henry Hyde (R-IL), fought hard to hold online service providers criminally liable
for materials generated by their subscribers. Fortunately, these efforts were not
successful. Holding providers liable would have forced them to pre-screen all
material on their networks, or, worse yet, shut down entire parts of their services
for fear of massive fines and prison sentences. The Christian Coalition was also
unsuccessful in their efforts to remove provisions encouraging the development and
deployment of parental control applications.
Due to the efforts of the 115,000 Internet users who signed the petition against
the CDA, the more than 20,000 users who in one day flooded Congress with phone
calls, faxes, and email messages, and those who throughout 1995 regularly called
their Congresspeople to express concerns about the various proposals, the Internet
community showed itself to be a true political force with real influence over the
legislative process. Although we did not accomplish all of our most important
objectives, we have become a powerful force. This is not the last time Congress
will consider issues vital to the interests of Internet users across the United
States. We must never loose sight of the fact that, despite the apparent defeat
today, there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done.
SEVERAL KEY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS FOUGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OF INTERNET USERS
Although a majority of Congress today demonstrated a complete lack of understanding
of the Internet and the implications of the Communications Decency Act, several
members deserve credit for standing up for freedom of speech and the free flow of
information online.
During the course of the debate over the last year on the CDA, Senators Patrick
Leahy (D-VT) and Russ Feingold (D-WI), along with Representatives Chris Cox (R-CA),
Rick White (R-WA), Michael Oxley (R-OH), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Ed Markey (D-MA),
showed courage and conviction by working to support enlightened alternatives to
government content restrictions. These members have shown themselves to be friends
of the Internet, and we look forward to working with them on other issues which lie
ahead.
ANALYSIS OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT PASSED TODAY
The legislation approved today was not changed from a previous version released
December 21, 1995 (See CDT Policy Post No. 33). Briefly, the proposal contains
several troubling elements. Among other things, the bill:
* Relies on the vague and blatantly unconstitutional "indecency"
standard (Sec 502 (a) - (c))
* Prohibits sending "indecent" material directly to a minor or making
indecent material available for display in a manner available to a
minor (including World Wide Web pages, ftp sites, or usenet
newsgroups) (Sec 502 (d)).
* No longer contains the provision of the Cox/Wyden/White bill
prohibiting the FCC from imposing content or other regulations on the
Internet or other interactive media.
* Would allow states to impose additional restrictions on non-commercial
activities such as free-nets, BBS's, and non-profit content providers
(Sec 502 (h)).
* Creates a new crime for the solicitation of minors using a computer,
the US mail, or any other means of interstate or foreign commerce (Sec
508).
The full text of the bill, along with other relevant background information
(including final vote tallies when available) can be found at CDT's Internet
Censorship Issues Web Page (http://www.cdt.org/cda.html).
As CDT prepares to fight this issue in court, we will continue to update you on
our progress as information becomes available.
For More Information Contact:
Jerry Berman, Executive Director
Daniel Weitzner, Deputy Director
+1.202.637.9800
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(3) SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
Be sure you are up to date on the latest public policy issues affecting civil
liberties online and how they will affect you! Subscribe to the CDT Policy Post
news distribution list. CDT Policy Posts, the regular news publication of the
Center For Democracy and Technology, are received by more than 9,000 Internet
users, industry leaders, policy makers and activists, and have become the leading
source for information about critical free speech and privacy issues affecting the
Internet and other interactive communications media.
To subscribe to CDT's Policy Post list, send mail to
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(3) ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY/CONTACTING US
The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest
organization based in Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to develop
and advocate public policies that advance democratic values and
constitutional civil liberties in new computer and communications
technologies.
Contacting us:
General information: info@cdt.org
World Wide Web: URL:http://www.cdt.org/
FTP URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/
Snail Mail: The Center for Democracy and Technology
1001 G Street NW * Suite 500 East * Washington, DC 20001
(v) +1.202.637.9800 * (f) +1.202.637.0968
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End Policy Post 2.5 2/1/96
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