IP: CDT -- Congress, Drawing To A Close, Considers Critical Internet Bills

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

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   The Center for Democracy and Technology  /____/     Volume 4, Number 24
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      A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online
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 CDT POLICY POST Volume 4, Number 24                    October 5, 1998

 CONTENTS: (1) Congress, Drawing to A Close, Considers Critical Internet
Bills
           (2) CDA II And Other Censorship Legislation
           (3) Protecting Children's Privacy
           (4) Encryption
           (5) Digital Signatures and Authentication
           (6) Addressing Junk Email
           (7) How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe
           (8) About CDT, Contacting us

  ** This document may be redistributed freely with this banner intact **
        Excerpts may be re-posted with permission of <ari () cdt org>

      |PLEASE SEE END OF THIS DOCUMENT FOR SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION|
_____________________________________________________________________________

(1) Congress, Drawing To A Close, Considers Critical Internet Bills

This may be the last week of this session of Congress, and it is still
unclear what will happen to several bills that could change the shape of
the Internet.  The Internet Tax Freedom Act (S. 442) has already passed the
House and debate on the Senate floor has begun.  Because of the strong
likelihood that the bill will be signed into law, Senators are attempting to
attach to it other Internet bills.  Meanwhile, the House is moving many of
its Internet related bills.

CDT developed two resources to help you follow and act on pending legislation:

* CDT's Legislation Affecting the Internet - A constantly updated list, by
issue area, of this session's legislation affecting civil liberties and the
Internet.
http://www.cdt.org/legislation/overview.html

* CDT's Digital Democracy - A way for you to identify and contact your
members of Congress on issues impacting civil liberties and the Internet.
This week the action page is focused on opposing censorship legislation, but
you can use this resource to contact your members of Congress on any of the
issues listed in this policy post.
http://www.cdt.org/action/

In addition to the tax bill, Internet related bills include copyright
legislation affecting digitized materials and a ban on Internet gambilng.
The following is a summary of the status of the major bills affecting civil
liberties before Congress this week and their potential impact on the future
of the Internet:

_____________________________________________________________________________

(2) CDA II AND OTHER CENSORSHIP LEGISLATION

CENSORSHIP BILLS: Congress is poised to vote on two bills that will
influence the future of free speech on the Internet. The "Communications
Decency Act (CDA) II",(S.1482) and the "Child Online Protection Act"
(HR 3783),
(introduced by Senator Oxley) restrict materials that are "harmful to
minors." Although containing substantial differences, (please see
http://www.cdt.org/legislation/speech/oxley_v_coats.html
for a detailed analysis), both the Coats bill and the Oxley bill are
unconstitutional and ineffective. These censorship bills place overly
broad restrictions on adult speech and fail to protect children from
inappropriate material, much of which originates outside the US.

BILLS STATUS: Senator Coats attached his censorship amendment to the
budget for the Commerce, Justice and State Departments (CJS) just before
it passed the Senate. Like the majority of appropriations bills before
Congress, the fate of the CJS Appropriations bill is uncertain. Therefore,
Senator Coats is attempting to attach censorship language to a number of
bills, including the Internet tax bill. In the House, an amended bill was
passed by the full committee on September 24. The Oxley bill is now
awaiting floor time, as of today it has not been scheduled for a vote.

FILTERING BILLS: The Internet School Filtering Act (S. 1619), introduced
by Senator McCain, would force schools and libraries with federally-
subsidized Internet access to use software filters, therefore placing an
unconstitutional condition upon receipt of federal funds.  In the House,
Senator Istook added an amendment, using similar language to the McCain
bill, to the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill
(Labor-H).

BILLS STATUS: The Istook amendment will hopefully be stripped out of the
Labor-H bill this week.  Like the Coats bill, McCain's Internet School
Filtering Act was added to the CJS appropriations bill in the Senate.


FOR MORE INFORMATION:

* CDT's Free Speech Legislation Page
http://www.cdt.org/legislation/speech/

* CDT's comparison of the Oxley and Coats bills
http://www.cdt.org/legislation/speech/oxley_v_coats.html

* CDT's constitutional analysis of the Oxley bill
http://www.cdt.org/speech/constitutional.html

* Text of the Oxley bill
http://www.cdt.org/legislation/speech/oxley.html

* CDT's testimony on the Oxley bill as introduced
http://www.cdt.org/speech/testimony/jbermantest.html

* CDT's Policy Post 4.16 analyzed the amendments to the CJS bill:
http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_4.16.html


_____________________________________________________________________________

(3) PROTECTING CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (S. 2326) - This bill, passed by
the full Senate Commerce Committee as introduced by Senators Bryan, Burns
and McCain would give the Federal Trade Commission the ability to prohibit
companies from collecting information online from children 12 and under
without parental consent. The bill responds to the Administration's call
for legislation to protect children's privacy.

BILL STATUS: The bill was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee and has
been attached to the Internet Tax Freedom Act. A companion bill has been
introduced in the House by Representative Markey (H.R. 4667), but the bill's
fate will most likely be decided in a conference committee for the Internet
tax bill.


FOR MORE INFORMATION:

* CDT's testimony on the Bryan bill as introduced:
http://www.cdt.org/privacy/testimony/testimony92398.html

* CDT's analysis of the FTC Report:
http://www.cdt.org/privacy/ftcanalysis.html

* CDT's analysis of VP Gore's 7/31/98 privacy proposal:
http://www.cdt.org/privacy/gore_analysis.980811.html

_____________________________________________________________________________

(4) ENCRYPTION

KYL AMENDMENT -- Senator Kyl recently proposed an amendment to the
"International Crime and Anti-Terrorism Amendments of 1998" (S. 2536) that
contains broad criminal provisions on the use of encryption. The Kyl
amendment penalizes any use of encryption in the course of committing a
crime with up to five years in prison for a single offense, regardless of
intent. Although previous encryption bills, such as
SAFE (HR 695), also contain criminal provisions, the proposed amendment
imposes much broader restrictions. These restrictions punish the routine
use of encryption, and could have in a chilling effect on the use of
encryption.

BILL STATUS: Senators that support privacy and security online have
temporarily stalled the Kyl amendment in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
However, Kyl is expected to push forward with this piece of legislation
when the terrorism amendments reach the Senate floor.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

* CDT's Encryption Page, with links to resources to all of the current
legislation:
http://www.cdt.org/crypto/

_____________________________________________________________________________

(5) DIGITAL SIGNATURES AND AUTHENTICATION

Paperwork Elimination Act (S. 2107) - This bill (introduced by Senator
Abraham) and its House counterpart (H.R. 2991 - the Electronic Commerce
Enhancement Act introduced by Representative Eshoo) are intended to
catalyze the use of digital authentication by government agencies, which
could influence how digital signatures are used in commerce as well.
The Abraham bill has been significantly changed since it was first
introduced in order not to favor certain technologies.  CDT is also hopeful
that language will be added to protect the privacy of information collected
by third parties in the process of issuing digital certificates.

BILL STATUS: It is possible that a version could be attached to the
Internet Tax Freedom Act.


FOR MORE INFORMATION:

* News.com's story on the Senate Committee's passage of the Abraham bill:
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,24234,00.html

* Federal Computer Week's story on the Senate Hearings on the bill:
http://athena.fcw.com/FCW/archive.nsf/Search+View/884BE0E6A27946DE8525665800
5322
00?OpenDocument

* CDT's letter to the General Services Administration on their ACES project
to provide citizens with digital signatures for government services
http://www.cdt.org/digsig/gsaletterrep.html

_____________________________________________________________________________

(6) ADDRESSING JUNK EMAIL

Anti-Slamming Amendments Act (S. 1618 and H.R. 3888) - These bills, mainly
designed to end unfair phone company practices, contain language meant to
help ease the problem of unsolicited commercial email.  The Senate bill
includes language from Senators Murkowski and Torricelli that would require
those who send unsolicited commercial email to: 1) identify themselves and
provide accurate contact information within the body of their email
message; 2) provide accurate routing information; and 3) stop sending email
messages upon the request of a recipient.  Those who break the law could be
fined by the FTC, states attorneys general, and/or Internet Service
Providers. While CDT believes that the bill will offer individuals remedies
to reduce unsolicited commercial email, we are still concerned that the
current language could impinge on the constitutional protections for
anonymous political speech.  The House bill (introduced by Representatives
Tauzin and Dingell) contains a "Sense of Congress" section on unsolicited
commercial email, but defers legislation until next Congress.

BILL STATUS:  Although S. 1618 has already passed the Senate, CDT has
written a letter to Senators Murkowski and Torricelli asking them to
consider adding language to preserve anonymous political speech. The House
Anti-Slamming bill was passed out of the Commerce Committee but, as mentioned
above, will not address the issue of junk email until next Congress.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

* CDT's testimony on the Anti-Slamming Amendments Act (H.R. 3888)
http://www.cdt.org/spam/testimony/deirdretest092998.html

* CDT's testimony on the Anti-Slamming Amendments Act (S. 1618)
http://www.cdt.org/junkemail/061798diertest.html

* CDT's letter to Senators Murkowski and Torricelli:
http://www.cdt.org/spam/cdtletter.html

* CDT's Policy Post 4.12 analyzed the Senate Bill:
http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_4.12.html

* Wired's story on the Tauzin-Dingell Bill's Hearing:
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/14282.html

* The Ad-Hoc Working Group on Unsolicited Commercial Email's Report to the
FTC: http://www.cdt.org/spam/

_____________________________________________________________________________

(7) SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

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(8) 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:       http://www.cdt.org/


Snail Mail:  The Center for Democracy and Technology
             1634 Eye Street NW * Suite 1100 * Washington, DC 20006
             (v) +1.202.637.9800 * (f) +1.202.637.0968

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End Policy Post 4.24                                                10/05/98
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Ari Schwartz
Policy Analyst
Center for Democracy and Technology
1634 Eye Street NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20006
202 637 9800
fax 202 637 0968
ari () cdt org
http://www.cdt.org
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