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EFFector Online Volume 08 No. 06 May 22, 1995 editors@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
In This Issue:
Campaign & New Petition to Stop the Communication Decency Act!
Calendar of Events
Quote of the Week
What YOU Can Do
* See http://www.eff.org/Alerts/ or ftp.eff.org, /pub/Alerts/ for more
information on current EFF activities and online activism alerts! *
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Campaign & New Petition to Stop the Communication Decency Act!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
EFF, VTW, CDT and other organizations in the Stop314 Coalition have issued
a new immediate action alert. Please read this alert and act quickly!
********
CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE EXON/GORTON COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT
Update: -Bill is on the Senate floor
-Please act to help Leahy stop the Exon censorship bill
PETITION TO HELP SENATOR LEAHY STOP THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL
COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT
May 19, 1995
PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT
REDISTRIBUTE ONLY UNTIL June 9, 1995
REPRODUCE THIS ALERT ONLY IN RELEVANT FORUMS
Distributed by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (vtw@vtw.org)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
The Time Is Now
Another Petition?
What Is Sen. Leahy Proposing?
How To Sign The Petition
The Petition Statement
Signing the petition from Fidonet or FTN systems
For More Information
List Of Participating Organizations
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE TIME IS NOW
HELP SENATOR LEAHY STOP THE EXON COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT
The Senate is expected to on vote the Communications Decency Act (CDA,
a.k.a. the Exon Bill) within the next three weeks.
The Communications Decency Act, in its current form, would severely
restrict your rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression
online, and represents a grave threat to the very nature and existence
of the Internet as we know it today. Without your help now, the
Communications Decency Act will likely pass and the net may never be
the same again.
Although the CDA has been revised to limit the liability of online
service providers, it would still criminalize the transmission of any
content deemed "obscene, lewd, lacivious, filthy, or indecent,"
including the private communications between consenting adults. Even
worse, some conservative pro-censorship groups are working to amend the
CDA to make it even more restrictive.
Currently, Senator Exon is negotiating with pro-censorship groups and
commercial entities that would be affected by the CDA. The voices of
Internet users must be heard now. We need to demonstrate that we are a
political force to be reckoned with.
In an effort to preserve your rights in cyberspace, Senator Patrick
Leahy (D-VT) has introduced the only legislative alternative to the
Communications Decency Act. Senator Leahy is willing to offer his bill
as a substitute for the CDA, but needs your support behind his
efforts.
Senator Leahy's legislation would commission a study to examine the
complex issues involved in protecting children from controversial
content while preserving the First Amendment, the privacy rights of
users, and the free flow of information in cyberspace.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANOTHER PETITION?
Yes. With a strong showing of support from the net.community, Senator
Leahy can offer his bill as a substitute for the Communications Decency
Act when the Senate votes on the issue later this month. Senator Leahy
needs and wants to demonstrate to his colleagues in the Senate that the
net.community is behind him in his efforts. We must rise to the task
and demonstrate that we will not sit idly by as our rights are
threatened.
Senator Leahy, a strong civil liberties advocate, has been the Senate's
most vocal critic of the Exon/Gorton Communications Decency Act, and
has taken a leading role in defending the rights and civil liberties of
Internet users. Senator Leahy has taken a great political risk in
representing the interests of Internet users on Capitol Hill. The time
has come for us to show our appreciation and our support for his
efforts.
The previous petition against the Communications Decency Act generated
over 108,000 signatures, and was instrumental in Senator Leahy's
decision to offer his alternative As the Senate moves to vote on the
CDA, we must act quickly to ensure that our collective voice continues
to be heard.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IS LEAHY PROPOSING?
Senator Leahy's bill, S. 714, would direct the Department of Justice
and the Department of Commerce to commence a 5 month study to examine:
* Current law enforcement authority to prosecute the distribution of
pornography over computer networks;
* Whether any additional law or law enforcement resources are necessary;
* The availability of technological capabilities, consistent with the
First Amendment and the free flow of information in Cyberspace, to
protect children from accessing controversial commercial and non-
commercial content;
* Ways to promote the development and deployment of such technologies.
After conducting the study, the Justice Department must report to Congress
on its findings, and, if necessary, recommend changes in current law.
Leahy's bill represents the only substantive legislative alternative to the
Communications Decency Act, and will buy important time to have a detailed
and rational discussion about the issues involved in protecting children
from controversial content, and avoid the rush to censorship which is
occurring now on the Senate Floor.
Without a strong show of support for Leahy's bill, the Communications
Decency Act is very likely to pass.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT CAN I DO?
Please Sign the petition in support of Senator Leahy's alternative.
There are two ways to sign:
1. World Wide Web:
URL:http://www.cdt.org/petition.html
Please follow all instructions carefully. Please also put a link
to this page on your homepage.
2. email:
send email to petition@cdt.org.
Please provide the following information EXACTLY AS SHOWN.
INCORRECT SUBMISSIONS CANNOT NOT BE COUNTED!
Be sure that you make a carriage return at the end of each line
Your Name
Your email address
Are you a US Citizen (yes or no) (** IF NO, skip to last line)
Your Street Address (** USE ONLY ONE LINE)
Your City
Your State
Your Zip Code (**VERY IMPORTANT)
Country
PRIVACY POLICY: Information collected during this campaign will not be
used for any purpose other than delivering a list of signers to
Congress and compiling counts of signers from particular states and
Congressional districts. It will not be reused, sold, rented, loaned,
or available for use for any other purpose. All records will be
destroyed immediately upon completion of this project.
--- sample email submission ---
To: petition@cdt.org
From: everybody@ubiquitous.net
Subject: signed
Every Body
everybody@ubiqutious.net
YES
1111 State Street, Apt. 31 B
Any Town
CA
94320
USA
--- sample email submission ---
Multiple signatures will not be counted, so please only sign once.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE PETITION STATEMENT
We the undersigned users of the Internet are strongly opposed to the
"Communications Decency Act" (Title IV of S. 652), which is currently
pending before the Senate. This legislation will severely restrict our
rights to freedom of speech and privacy guaranteed under the
constitution.
Based on our Nation's longstanding history of protecting freedom of
speech, we believe that the Federal Government should have no role in
regulating the content of constitutionally protected speech on the
Internet.
We urge the Senate to halt consideration of the Communications Decency
Act and consider in its place S. 714, the "Child Protection, User
Empowerment, and Free Expression In Interactive Media Study Bill", an
alternative approach offered by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT).
Signed:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNING THE PETITION FROM FIDONET OR FTN SYSTEMS
To sign the petition from FidoNet or other FTN systems, create a
netmail message to your local UUCP host. Search the nodelist for the
GUUCP flag, and use the address of that system:
To: UUCP, [GUUCP system's address here. "To:" name MUST be set to UUCP]
From: [you]
Subject: signed
_________________________________________________________________________
To: petition@cdt.org
Every Body
everybody@ubiqutious.net
YES
1111 State Street, Apt. 31 B
Any Town
CA
94320
USA
[Message starts on 3rd line. The second "To:" line with the internet
email address MUST be the first line of the message body, and the blank
line following that is REQUIRED. Mail will not be delivered by the gateways
without it.]
If you are unsure whether your FTN has an Internet gateway, or suspect it
may use something other than a GUUCP nodelist flag, ask your network
coordinators.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PETITION RATIONALE
We oppose the "Communications Decency Act", sponsored by Senators James
Exon (D-NE) and Slade Gorton (R-WA), for the following reasons:
* It criminalizes the transmission of constitutionally protected speech,
including the private communications between consenting individuals;
* It would violate privacy rights by protecting system administrators
who take steps to ensure that their networks are not being used to
transmit prohibited content, even if those steps include reading all
messages, in violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
(ECPA).
* It fails to account for the unique characteristics of interactive
media, including the tremendous control users have over the content
they or their children receive.
* It would give the Federal Communications Commission jurisdiction over
online speech by giving the FCC authority to establish rules
governing the distribution of content online;
The Internet and other interactive communications technologies offer a
unique opportunity for the free exchange of information and ideas, and
embody the very essence of our nation's democratic traditions of
openness, diversity and freedom of speech.
As users of these technologies, we know perhaps better than anyone that
there are other, less restrictive ways to protect children from
controversial materials while preserving the First Amendment and the
free flow of information.
Senator Leahy's bill provides an opportunity to address the issues
raised by the Communications Decency Act without restricting the free
speech and privacy rights of users.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Petition updates will be posted to appropriate newsgroups and other
forums on a regular basis.
To have the latest status report sent to you automatically, send email
to: p-update@cdt.org
If you have specific questions, or if you are interested in mirroring
the petition page, contact Jonah Seiger
Other petition related information can be found on the CDT petition
page.
URL:http://www.cdt.org/petition.html
For More information on the Communications Decency Act issue:
Web Sites
URL:http://www.cdt.org/cda.html
URL:http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/
URL:http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon/
FTP Archives
URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/policy/freespeech/00-INDEX.FREESPEECH
URL:ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/Alerts/
Gopher Archives:
URL:gopher://gopher.eff.org/11/Alerts
URL:gopher://gopher.panix.com/11/vtw/exon
Information By auto-reply email:
If you don't have www/ftp/gopher access, you can get up-to-date
information from the following autobots:
General information on the CDA issue cda-info@cdt.org
Current status of the CDA issue cda-stat@cdt.org
Chronology of events of the CDA issue vtw@vtw.org with the
subject "send events"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
LIST OF PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS
In order to use the net more effectively, several organizations have
joined forces on a single Congressional net campaign to stop the
Communications Decency Act.
In alphabetical order:
Californians Against Censorship Together BobbyLilly@aol.com
Center For Democracy And Technology (CDT) info@cdt.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) info@eff.org
Feminists For Free Expression (FFE) FFE@aol.com
Florida Coalition Against Censorship pipking@mail.firn.edu
Hands Off! The Net baby-x@phanton.com
Inner Circle Technologies, Inc. aka. NovaLink
League for Programming Freedom lpf@uunet.uu.net
National Libertarian Party 73163.3063@compuserve.com
Marijuana Policy Project MPProject@AOL.com
MindVox system@phantom.com
National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN) info@nptn.org
National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981 AFL-CIO) kip@world.std.com
Panix Public Access Internet info@panix.com
People for the American Way jlessern@reach.com
Society for Electronic Access sea@sea.org
The WELL info@well.com
Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) vtw@vtw.org
If you would like to add your organization to this list, contact Shabbir
Safdar at VTW
------------------------------
Subject: Calendar of Events
---------------------------
This schedule lists EFF events, and those we feel might be of interest to
our members. EFF events (those sponsored by us or featuring an EFF speaker)
are marked with a "*" instead of a "-" after the date. Simlarly, government
events, such as deadlines for comments on reports or testimony submission, are
marked with "!" in place of the "-" after the date.
If you know of an event of some sort that should be listed here, please
send info about it to Stanton McCandlish (mech@eff.org)
The latest full version of this calendar, which includes material for
later in the year as well as the next couple of months, is available from:
ftp: ftp.eff.org, /pub/EFF/calendar.eff
gopher: gopher.eff.org, 1/EFF, calendar.eff
http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/calendar.eff
Updated: May 15, 1995
1995
----
May 22-
24 - ErgoCon '95 - Silicon Valley Ergonomics Conference & Exposition;
San Jose, Calif.
Contact: Abbas Moallem, +1 408 9244132 (voice), +1 408 924 4153 (fax)
May 26-
28 - Virtual Futures 1995; U. of Warwick, Coventry, UK. VF'95 "is an
interdisciplinary event that examines the role of cybernetic
and specifically dissipative or non-linear models in the arts,
sciences, and philosophy. The conference explores the relationship
between postmodern philosophy and chaos theory, with topics
ranging from: information technology, hypertext and
multimedia applications...[to] neural nets, and nanotechnology."
Speakers include: Kathy Acker, Hakim Bey, Richard Kadrey, Manuel
DeLanda, Alan Sondheim and many more. Deadline for proposals:
Mar. 1 '95.
Contact: +44 0203 523523 x2582 (voice), +44 0203 523019 (fax)
Email: virtual-futures@warwick.ac.uk
May 31 - Deadline for paper submissions, 11th Ann. Computer Security
Applications Conference (see Dec. 11, below).
June 4-
6 - Cyber.Xpo.95; Sahara Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada; sponsored by
_Sysop_News_. Seminar sessions & tradeshow.
Contact: +1 614 452 4541 (voice)
June 5-
6 ! 5th Annual "U.S. Copyright Office Speaks" Seminar (West Coast);
the Beverly Hilton, Los Angeles, Calif. Topics include: inside
look at New Register's agenda, analysis of NII legislation,
ACCORD update, & international developments. (See May 1-2 for
East Coast event.)
Contact: +1 201 894 8260 (voice)
June 7-
9 - Third International Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Applications on Wall Street; Pace University, New York City, NY.
Contact: +1 914 763 8820 (voice), +1 914 763 9324 (fax)
Email: satwell@mcimail.com
June 8-
10 - Exploring the VideoClass Alternative; Raleigh, N. Carolina.
Email: tom_russell@nsu.edu
June 11-
14 - Society & the Future of Computing (SFC'95); Tamarron Lodge,
Durango, Colorado. Sponsored by the Assoc. for Computing
Machinery, LANL, U. of Md., IEEE. Speakers will include Phil Agre
(UCSD), Leslie Sandberg (Institute for Telemedicine), Wm.
Halverson (PacBell), Don Norman (Apple), Linda Garcia
(Congressional Office of Technology Assessment), John
Cherniavsky (Natl. Science Found.) and several others.
Email: sfc95@lanl.gov
WWW: http://www.lanl.gov/LANLNews/Conferences/.sfc95/sfcHome.html/
June 13-
15 - IDT 95 - 12th Congress on Information Markets and Industries;
Paris, France. Organized by ADBS (a society of information
professionals), ANRT (National Association of Technological
Research), and GFII (French association of information industries).
Contact: +33 1 43 72 25 25 (voice), +33 1 43 72 30 41 (fax)
June 17-
19 - NECC'95: Emerging Technologies and Lifelong Learning: 16th Annual
National Educational Computing Conf., sponsored by International
Society for Technology in Education; Baltimore, Maryland.
VP Gore and Sec'y. of Labor Robert Reich invited as keynote
speakers. Other speakers include: John Phillipo (CELT), Frank
Knott (MGITB)
Contact: +1 503 346 2834 (voice), +1 503 346 5890 (fax)
Email: necc95@ccmail.uoregon.edu
June 18-
21 - ED-MEDIA'95; Graz, Austria. A world conference on educational
multimedia and hypermedia. Sponsor: The Association for the
Advancement of Computing.
Contact: +1 804 973 3987 (voice)
Email: aace@virginia.edu.
June 24-
28 - Workshop on Ethical & Professional Issues in Computing;
Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY. Deadline for submissions:
Apr. 15.
Contact: +1 518 276 8503 (voice), +1 518 276 2659 (fax)
Email: cherkt@rpi.edu
June 27-
29 - Women in Technology Conference: Channels for Change; Santa Clara
Conv. Ctr., Santa Clara, Calif. Speakers include: Gloria Steinem.
Sponsored by Int'l. Network of Women in Technology (WITI).
Contact: +1 818 990 1987 (voice), +1 818 906 3299 (fax)
Email: witi@crl.com
June 28-
30 - INET '95 Internet Society 5th Ann. International Networking
Conf.; Honolulu, Hawaii. Sponsored by Internet Society (ISoc).
See Jan. 13 for proposal deadline
Contact: +1 703 648 9888 (voice)
FTP: ftp.isoc.org, /isoc/inet95/
Gopher: gopher.isoc.org, 1/isoc/inet95
WWW: http://www.isoc.org/inet95.html
Email: inet95@isoc.org
------------------------------
Subject: Quote of the Week
--------------------------
"It is no solution to define words as violence or prejudice as
oppression, and then by cracking down on words or thoughts pretend that
we are doing something about violence and oppression. No doubt it is
easier to pass a speech code or hate-crimes law and proclaim the streets
safer than actually to make the streets safer, but the one must never be
confused with the other...Indeed, equating "verbal violence" with
physical violence is a treacherous, mischievous business."
- Jonathon Rauch, in an essay in _Harper's_Magazine_, May 1995
Find yourself wondering if your privacy and freedom of speech are safe
when bills to censor the Internet are swimming about in a sea of of
surveillance legislation and anti-terrorism hysteria? Worried that in
the rush to protect us from ourselves that our government representatives
may deprive us of our essential civil liberties?
Join EFF!
------------------------------
Subject: What YOU Can Do
------------------------
* The Exon Bill (Communications Decency Act)
The Communications Decency Act poses serious threats to freedom of
expression online, and to the livelihoods of system operators. The
legislation also undermines several crucial privacy protections.
Business/industry persons concerned should alert their corporate govt.
affairs office and/or legal counsel. Everyone should write to their own
Senators and ask them to support Sen. Leahy's replacement bill. Explain,
quickly and clearly, why Exon language is dangerous, and urge efforts to
remove it from the larger bill it is a part of (S.652)
S.652, the Senate telecom deregulation bill, now contains Sen. Exon's
"Communications Decency Act" (formerly S.314.) The House version, even
more dangerous to system operators (though far less imminent), is H.R.1004.
Senator Leahy's replacement bill for the S.314 language in S.652 is the
new bill S.714.
For more information on what you can do to help stop this and other
dangerous legislation, see:
ftp.eff.org, /pub/Alerts/
gopher.eff.org, 1/Alerts
http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/
If you do not have full internet access, send your request
for information to ask@eff.org.
* ITAR Export Restrictions on Encryption
The U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations classify encryption
algorithms and products as "munitions" (weapons of war), and the State
Department and NSA thereby restrict distribution of encryption technology -
technology vital to the networking security and your personal privacy.
Companies making encryption products are forced to produce good versions
for domestic use and crippled versions for export. Or, more likely, to
simply produce a crippled version, since maintaining two versions is
often prohibitively expensive. The ITAR export controls are the primary
ace in the hole the Administration is using to push key "escrow" schemes
such as Clipper. Help EFF defeat the unconstitutional ITAR crypto export
restrictions but supporting the EFF Cyberspace Legal Defense Fund, the
fund fuelling the Bernstein v. Dept. of State case.
For more information, see:
http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/cyberlegal_fund_eff.announce
gopher.eff.org, 1/Alerts, cyberlegal_fund_eff.announce
ftp.eff.org, /pub/Alerts/cyberlegal_fund_eff.announce
* Find Out Who Your Congresspersons Are
Writing letters to, faxing, and phoning your representatives in Congress
is one very important strategy of activism, and an essential way of
making sure YOUR voice is heard on vital issues.
EFF has lists of the Senate and House with contact information, as well
as lists of Congressional committees. These lists are available at:
ftp.eff.org, /pub/Activism/Congress_cmtes/
gopher.eff.org, 1/EFF/Issues/Activism/Congress_cmtes
http://www.eff.org/pub/Activism/Congress_cmtes/
The full Senate and House lists are senate.list and hr.list, respectively.
Those not in the U.S. should seek out similar information about their
own legislative bodies. EFF will be happy to archive any such
information provided.
* Join EFF!
You *know* privacy, freedom of speech and ability to make your voice heard
in government are important. You have probably participated in our online
campaigns and forums. Have you become a member of EFF yet? The best way to
protect your online rights is to be fully informed and to make your
opinions heard. EFF members are informed and are making a difference. Join
EFF today!
For EFF membership info, send queries to membership@eff.org, or send any
message to info@eff.org for basic EFF info, and a membership form.
------------------------------
Administrivia
=============
EFFector Online is published by:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
1667 K St. NW, Suite 801
Washington DC 20006-1605 USA
+1 202 861 7700 (voice)
+1 202 861 1258 (fax)
+1 202 861 1223 (BBS - 16.8k ZyXEL)
+1 202 861 1224 (BBS - 14.4k V.32bis)
Membership & donations: membership@eff.org
Legal services: ssteele@eff.org
Hardcopy publications: pubs@eff.org
General EFF, legal, policy or online resources queries: ask@eff.org
Editor:
Stanton McCandlish, Online Services Mgr./Activist/Archivist (mech@eff.org)
This newsletter printed on 100% recycled electrons.
Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged. Signed
articles do not necessarily represent the views of EFF. To reproduce
signed articles individually, please contact the authors for their express
permission. Press releases and EFF announcements may be reproduced individ-
ually at will.
To subscribe to EFFector via email, send message body of "subscribe
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Back issues are available at:
ftp.eff.org, /pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/
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To get the latest issue, send any message to effector-reflector@eff.org (or
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at EFFweb.
------------------------------
End of EFFector Online v08 #06 Digest
*************************************
$$
