Date: 14 Feb 1995 12:34:14 U
From: "John Kawakami" <ed_asst@xplain.com>
Subject: Net Law
To: "Bad" <badsubjects@uclink.berkeley.edu>

                       Subject:                               Time:12:32 PM
  OFFICE MEMO          Net Law                                Date:2/14/95
I clipped this from TidBits.  This isn't the "modem tax" or the "FCC wants to
tax the Internet".  It sounds real, and I've heard news stories about this bill.


Communications Decency Act of 1995
----------------------------------
  by Geoff Duncan <geoff@tidbits.com>

  In a move that's incited all manner of protest throughout the
  Internet community (and especially among Internet providers),
  Senator Jim Exon of Nebraska has introduced Senate bill 314,
  titled The Communications Decency Act of 1995. This bill would
  expand current FCC regulations on "obscene" and "indecent"
  telephony and telegraphy to cover any content carried by all forms
  of electronic communications networks. This would place
  significant criminal liability on telecommunications and network
  providers if their network was used in the transmission of any
  material deemed to be "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or
  indecent," as provided under the Communications Act of 1934.

http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legislation/Bills_new/s314.bill
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c104query.html

  Essentially, if enacted, this bill would compel Internet providers
  to restrict the activities of their users (for instance, by
  preventing them from using email, conferencing services, Usenet,
  FTP, and the like), or to monitor every private communication,
  file transmission, email message, news posting, etc., to ensure no
  activity for which they could be held liable was taking place.
  Penalties provided under this bill are up to two years in prison
  or $100,000 in fines. The text of S. 314 appears to be
  substantially identical to S. 1822 of the 103rd Congress, offered
  by Senator Exon last year and which failed with the Senate
  Telecommunications Reform bill. However, given the more
  conservative tone of the 104th Congress and legislators' growing
  unwillingness to oppose "morality" legislation of this nature, S.
  314's chances of eventual passage may be substantially better.

  Although it's not likely many people would favor legalizing email
  harassment (in the same way most people don't seem to think
  telephone harassment should be legal), S. 314 holds service
  providers liable for the "decency" of materials transferred
  through their networks. To draw a parallel, a real-world
  equivalent of this bill could mean holding the builder of a street
  liable for armed robbery because someone used that road to
  transport stolen goods from a crime scene. Under S. 314, the only
  exceptions to this bill would be government-decreed common
  carriers like telephone companies. Although U.S. legal standards
  of decency and obscenity have been matters of controversy since
  the nation's founding, there is concern amongst the online
  community that such legislation could suppress open discussion of
  often-controversial issues such as homosexuality, abortion,
  controlled substances, or abuse.

  According to the most recent edition of the Electronic Frontier
  Foundation's EFFector Online, Senator Exon and his staff may not
  have been aware that the text of their bill had such broad
  potential for criminalization and a rewrite is apparently being
  considered. Senator Exon seems to have been motivated to introduce
  this bill in response to incidents of "Internet stalking" and
  email harassment, such as a current case involving a University of
  Michigan student posting a fictional story of rape and sexual
  torture.

http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/effect08.01

  Contact information for the Senate Commerce Committee and Senator
  Exon can be found on a variety of sites around the net; a pointer
  to CapWeb is included below. Discussion of S. 314 can be found on
  the newsgroups <comp.org.eff.talk> and <comp.org.cpsr.talk>.

http://policy.net/capweb/Senate/SenateCom/COM.html

  Information from:
    EFFector Online, 10-Feb-95
    Electronic Messaging Association
    Pythaeus