Interesting People mailing list archives
Coalition forms to oppose Exon "decency" bill, S314/HR1004
From: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 03 Mar 1995 11:42:03 -0800
PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE AFTER MAY 1, 1995 Feb. 22, 1995 [updated Mar. 3 to include House version's bill number] Distributed by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (vtw () vtw org) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (ask () eff org) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [In order to use the net more effectively, the following organizations have joined forces on a single Congressional net campaign to stop the Communications Decency Act, S. 314 & H.R. 1004 (in alphabetical order): the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Electronic Frontier Foundation-Austin (EFF-Austin), (Note that EFF-Austin is not a chapter of the DC-based EFF) the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the Hands Off! the Net petition drive, the People for the American Way (PFAW), the Society for Electronic Access (SEA), and the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) These organizations are using the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) as a conduit for legislative feedback. When you contact Congress about the Communications Decency Act and send your feedback to vtw () vtw org, that information is being fed back to all participating organizations. If your organization would like to signon to this campaign and receive legislative feedback, contact vtw () vtw org. -Shabbir] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS Introduction What you can do Contact Information Background Current status of S. 314 Where can I learn more about the bill? (URL included) Where will I learn about updates to this alert? Current list of participating organizations ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION Dear Net Citizens: Legislation has been introduced before the Senate which would severely restrict your freedom of speech, halt the free flow of information on the net, and require all telecommunications carriers to censor your public and private communications. The "Communications Decency Act of 1995" (S. 314), introduced in early February by Senators Exon (D-NE) and Gorton (R-WA), would place substantial criminal liability on telecommunications carriers (including traditional telephone networks, Internet service providers, commercial online services such as America Online and Compuserve, and independent BBS's) whenever their networks are used to transmit any material which is deemed indecent or harassing. In order to avoid these penalties, carriers would be forced to restrict the activities of their subscribers and censor all public and private communications. We must act quickly to stop the progress of S. 314. The bill may soon be incorporated into Senate telecommunications reform legislation, which is currently being drafted by the Senate Commerce Committee. The telecommunications reform bill may be introduced as early as mid March, and is expected to be considered on a fast track. If S. 314 is included in this bill, it will be extremely difficult to change or remove and could pass quickly. We are asking you to join us in urging key members of the Senate to prevent S. 314 from being included in Senate telecommunications reform measures and to hold open, public hearings on the issue. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT YOU CAN DO (IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES) 1. Contact Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD, Commerce Committee Chairman), Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR) and Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC, ranking member) and urge them to keep S.314 from being incorporated into telecommunications reform legislation. You'll find their addresses, phone numbers, and fax numbers below. Also, if you live in: AK AZ HI KY LA MA ME MO MS MT ND NE NV OR SC SD TX WA WV you should also contact your own Senator from the Commerce committee. Remember, the best and most effective means of influencing a member of Congress is to write a letter in your own words. 2. Write/Fax/Email them a letter or make a phone call. Try to mention as as many of the points below (marked with a *) as you can fit politely into communication. 3. DON'T FORGET TO DROP A NOTE TO VTW () VTW ORG to tell us who you contacted. We'll tally the results and feed them back to all participating organizations. It's crucial we have this feedback, even if you just got a form letter, or a "thank you" to your phone call. 4. Feel good about yourself. You've just participated in democracy without leaving your seat. 5. (Extra bonus activism) Reproduce this alert with the expiration date and contact information intact to other non-Usenet places. Fax it to your friends, post a copy to your local bulletin board. Please don't spam it to places like rec.pets.cats, but place it in places where people who don't read a lot of Usenet might see it. Non-net connected BBSs are great, as are physical bulletin boards. Please don't post it to email lists or newsgroups not related to politics, as this will annoy people. Most especially, try to reach people in the larger online services, such as America OnLine and Compuserve and the large PC networks, such as Fidonet. When writing a letter or making a phone call, try to include the following points in your message: * S. 314 must not be incorporated into the Senate telecommunications reform bill. * The bill would force communications service providers to limit or remove my access to file archives, discussion forums, and electronic mail. * S. 314 would dramatically restrict the free flow of information through out the online world and limit the free speech and privacy rights of individual users. * Placing criminal liability on communications service providers will force providers to censor the activities of their subscribers. * As a user of interactive communications technologies, I am capable of deciding for myself and for my children what content I wish to receive. The government should not be involved in deciding what kinds of content I may access. * Public hearings must be held to consider possible technological means and policy alternatives to government content restrictions in interactive media. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTACT INFORMATION Here are the Commerce committee members. Please contact Sen. Larry Pressler (the Committee Chairman) and Sen. Ernest Hollings at a minimum. If you see your state listed below, contact your own senator as well. All addresses are Washington, D.C. 20510 P ST Name and Address Phone Fax = == ======================== ============== ============== R SD Pressler, Larry 1-202-224-5842 1-202-224-1259* 243 RSOB larry_pressler () pressler senate gov *Note this is the Commerce Committee's fax number D SC Hollings, Ernest F. 1-202-224-6121 1-202-224-4293 125 RSOB R OR Packwood, Robert 1-202-224-5244 1-202-228-3576 259 RSOB D HI Inouye, Daniel K. 1-202-224-3934 1-202-224-6747 722 HSOB R AK Stevens, Ted 1-202-224-3004 1-202-224-1044 522 HSOB D KY Ford, Wendell H. 1-202-224-4343 1-202-224-0046 173A RSOB wendell_ford () ford senate gov R AZ McCain, John 1-202-224-2235 1-202-228-2862 111 RSOB D NE Exon, J. J. 1-202-224-4224 1-202-224-5213 528 HSOB R MT Burns, Conrad R. 1-202-224-2644 1-202-224-8594 183 DSOB D WV Rockefeller, John D. 1-202-224-6472 1-202-224-1689 109 HSOB R WA Gorton, Slade 1-202-224-3441 1-202-224-9393 730 HSOB Senator_Gorton () gorton senate gov D MA Kerry, John F. 1-202-224-2742 1-202-224-8525 421 RSOB R MS Lott, Trent 1-202-224-6253 1-202-224-2262 487 RSOB D LA Breaux, John B. 1-202-224-4623 1-202-224-2435 516 HSOB R TX Hutchison, Kay Bailey 1-202-224-5922 1-202-224-0776 703 HSOB senator () hutchison senate gov D NV Bryan, Richard H. 1-202-224-6244 1-202-224-1867 364 RSOB R ME Snowe, Olympia 1-202-224-5344 1-202-224-6853 176 RSOB D ND Dorgan, Byron L. 1-202-224-2551 1-202-224-1193 713 HSOB R MO Ashcroft, John 1-202-224-6154 1-202-224-7615 170 RSOB ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CURRENT STATUS OF S. 314 The bill was introduced on February 1, 1995 by Senators Exon (D-NE) and Gorton (R-WA). It is currently pending before the Senate Commerce Committee (chaired by Senator Pressler (R-SD)). No committee action has been scheduled as of February 21, 1995. It may be included in the Senate telecommunications reform legislation, expected to be introduced by mid-March. A House of Representatives version of the bill has also been introduced with almost identical text, as H.R. 1004. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BACKGROUND S. 314 would expand current law restricting indecency and harassment on telephone services to all telecommunications providers and expand criminal liability to all content carried by all forms of telecommunications networks. The bill would amend Section 223 of the Communications Act (47 U.S.C. 223), which requires carriers to take steps to prevent minors from gaining access to indecent audiotext and criminalizes harassment accomplished over interstate telephone lines. If enacted, S. 314 would compel service providers to severely restrict your online activities. Your access to email, discussion lists, usenet, the world wide web, gopher, and ftp archives would be substantially reduced or cut off entirely. The bill would also force providers to closely monitor and pre-screen your electronic mail, and refuse to transmit any message or other content which may be considered to be indecent. This bill poses a significant threat to freedom of speech and the free flow of information in cyberspace. The bill also raises fundamental questions about the right of government to control content on communications networks, as well as the locus of liability for content carried in these new communications media. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BILL? (URL INCLUDED) The Voters Telecommunications Watch has set up a gopher page where you can get a copy of the bill (including analyses by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Messaging Association, and others). Here's the URL: WWW URL: gopher://gopher.panix.com/11/vtw/exon Gopher command : gopher -p 1/vtw/exon gopher.panix.com If you have difficulty getting to this gopher page, or if you don't have access to Mosaic/gopher, drop a note to: vtw () vtw org ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHERE WILL I LEARN ABOUT UPDATES TO THIS ALERT? We will post updates to this alert in three places: -On the account vtw () panix com (finger vtw () panix com) -On Usenet (comp.org.eff.talk, comp.org.cpsr.talk, and alt.privacy) -Through our announcements mailing list, vtw-announce () vtw org. To subscribe, simply send a message to listproc () vtw org with the following in the message body: subscribe vtw-announce Firstname Lastname ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CURRENT LIST OF PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS At this time, the following organizations have signed onto this campaign and are receiving the legislative feedback that VTW is compiling: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), infoaclu () aclu org Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), ask () cdt org Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), ask () eff org Electronic Frontier Foundation-Austin (EFF-Austin), eff-austin () tic com (Note that EFF-Austin is not a chapter of the DC-based EFF) Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), info () epic org Hands Off! the Net petition drive, slowdog () wookie net People for the American Way (PFAW), jlessern () reach com Society for Electronic Access (SEA), sea () sea org Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW), vtw () vtw org Note that the Voters Telecommunications Watch does not speak for these organizations. Any opinions contained herein are those of the author, and not necessarily endorsed by participating organizations. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- Coalition forms to oppose Exon "decency" bill, S314/HR1004 Dave Farber (Mar 03)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Coalition forms to oppose Exon "decency" bill, S314/HR1004 Public Affairs Office (Mar 04)