========================================================================= ________________ _______________ _______________ /_______________/\ /_______________\ /\______________\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/ ||||||||||||||||| / //////////////// \\\\\________/\ |||||________\ / /////______\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\/____ |||||||||||||| / ///////////// \\\\\___________/\ ||||| / //// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/ ||||| \//// ========================================================================= EFFector Online Volume 08 No. 07 June 6, 1995 editors@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 IN THIS ISSUE: ALERT: Communications Decency Act - Imminent Passage or Failure - Act NOW! The Latest News What You Can Do Now -- U.S. and non-U.S. citizens Senate Contact List For More Information List Of Participating Organizations Newsbytes Dole/Grassley Legislation Threatens Online Free Speech - Worse Than CDA New Draft of Communications Decency Legislation Sen. Lott to Attempt to Rip Sysop Defenses from Exon Bill The Other Side of the Coin: Feinstein Bill v. Bomb Material Online Prodigy Potentially Liable for User Postings Calendar of Events Quote of the Week What YOU Can Do Administrivia * See http://www.eff.org/Alerts/ or ftp.eff.org, /pub/Alerts/ for more information on current EFF activities and online activism alerts! * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: ALERT: Communications Decency Act - Act NOW! * EMERGENCY UPDATE: Just as this issue was going to virtual press, more and * very dire news has arrived. Senators Bob Dole (R-KS) and Charles Grassley * (R-IA) have announced they are sponsoring, and probably introducing very * soon, new Internet censorship legislation even more threatening * to free speech than the Exon "Communications Decency Act". Unlike the * Leahy alternative to the CDA, the Dole/Grassley legislation is not, * according to sponsor Grassley, intended to be offered as a replacement * for the Exon language in the Senate telecom reform bill, but rather is * intended as free-standing bill. As CDT, a member of the Stop314 Coalition * with EFF, notes, the advent of the Dole/Grassley bill creates an even * greater need for support of Senator Leahy's alternative (S. 714). If * the Senate rejects Senator Leahy's alternative, it will pass either the * Exon bill or the even more draconian Dole/Grassley proposal, and the * net as we know it will never be the same again. Please, take the very * few minutes it will require to call your Senators and sign the Leahy * petition, as detailed in the lead article below. More info on the * Dole/Grassley proposal is in the Newsbytes section of this newsletter. Below is the latest action alert from the Stop314 Coalition (including EFF). *This may look like alerts you've seen on previous days and weeks, but it is new.* Please take the time to check it out - the time has come to direct your activism toward your Senators. The petition drive for the Leahy opposition bill has receive over 20,000 signatures in a very short time, but it is not enough. Please pardon the length of this EFFector, but this is the most important action alert that has appeared in EFFector this year. ________________________________________________________________________ CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE EXON/GORTON COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT Update: -Senate changes gears, we're caught with little time -What You Can Do Now (US and non-US citizens) CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT June 6, 1995 PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT REDISTRIBUTE ONLY UNTIL June 20, 1995 REPRODUCE THIS ALERT ONLY IN RELEVANT FORUMS Distributed by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (vtw@vtw.org) [NOTE: EFF has added two bracketed additions to the "What You Can Do Now" section, in light of the sudden appearance of the Dole/Grassley bill and the Lott amendment.] ________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS The Latest News What You Can Do Now -- U.S. and non-U.S. citizens Senate Contact List For More Information List Of Participating Organizations ________________________________________________________________________ THE LATEST NEWS The Senate is ready to act on the Telecommunications Reform Bill this week, perhaps as soon as Wednesday, June 7th. We had thought the Counter Terrorism bill would take all week, but the Senate changed its schedule without consulting us. :-) (We sincerely apologize for issuing another alert on the heels of the prior one, but the Senate's readiness to move on this legislation was not anticipated. We'll watch out for such a situation again and avoid releasing two alerts so close together in the future. We also apologize for the length of this Alert, but it contains the entire Senate contact info.) Note that there are few people who don't know about the bill. However if you are unfamiliar with the bill, take a moment to retrieve the materials listed in the "For More Information" section. ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW -- U.S. and non-U.S. citizens The Telecomm Reform Bill, will, in all likelihood, include either the Exon Amendment (formerly the Communications Decency Act) or the Leahy Amendment. It is essential that the Leahy language be substituted for Exon's, and therefore it is essential: 1. That all citizens call or fax their Senators as soon as possible. There is no time for written letters and email is too easily discounted or ignored. Non-U.S. citizens should contact Vice President Gore. Note, if you decide to send a fax, you'll want to write an expanded version of the statement below. It's very important that you always be cool, collected, and polite. U.S. citizens: "Hello, Senator ________'s office" "Hi, I'm a constituent and would like to register my opinion on the Telecommunications Reform bill to the Senator." "Hold On please. Alright, go ahead." "Please vote to remove the Communications Decency Act provision (Title 4 of S652) from the Telecomm Reform bill and replace it with the Leahy alternative (S714). My name and address is ________." "Thanks for calling." [Addition in light of emergency update: Ask your Senators to also oppose the Lott amendment S.714, and to oppose the Dole/Grassley alternative to the CDA.] Non-U.S. citizens: "Dear Vice President Gore, The world looks to the United States as one leader in developing a Global Information Infrastructure. Title 4 of the Telecomm Reform bill (the Communications Decency Act) [like the Dole/Grassley Internet censorship bill,] imperils that leadership. Please work to remove it from the Telecomm Reform bill (S652) and replace it with Senator Leahy's sensible alternative (S714). I'm calling from ____________." 2. Send VTW a note telling us what you did. If you contacted your two Senators, send a letter to vtw@vtw.org with a subject line of "XX ack" where "XX" is your state. For example: To: vtw@vtw.org Subject: OH ack I called my Ohio Senators and expressed my opinion. If you contact Senators outside your state, please let us know what state you're from. If you contacted Vice President Gore, send a letter to vtw@vtw.org with a subject line of "gore ack". For example: To: vtw@vtw.org Subject: gore ack I called VP Gore and expressed my opinion. I'm from France. An automatic responder will return an updated contact tally. 3. Forward this Alert to relevant forums on other online services and BBS's. Check the letter you get back to see which Senators are underrepresented by citizen contacts. Forward the Alert to any friends and colleagues in those states. 4. If you haven't yet signed the petition to support Sen. Leahy, do so now. Send mail to vtw@vtw.org with a subject line of "send petition" for directions. 5. Congratulate yourself! Your two-minute activism joins that of many thousands of others over the past two months. ________________________________________________________________________ SENATE CONTACT LIST Vice President Gore can be reached at: White House comment line Telephone: (202) 456-1111 (M-F 9-5 EST) Facsimile: (202) 456-2461 (M-F 9-5 EST) Email: vice-president@whitehouse.gov US Senate Listing: D ST Name (Party) Phone Fax = == ============ ===== === R AK Murkowski, Frank H. 1-202-224-6665 1-202-224-5301 R AK Stevens, Ted 1-202-224-3004 1-202-224-1044 D AL Heflin, Howell T. 1-202-224-4124 1-202-224-3149 R AL Shelby, Richard C. 1-202-224-5744 1-202-224-3416 D AR Bumpers, Dale 1-202-224-4843 1-202-224-6435 D AR Pryor, David 1-202-224-2353 1-202-224-8261 R AZ Kyl, Jon 1-202-224-4521 1-202-224-2302 R AZ McCain, John 1-202-224-2235 1-202-228-2862 D CA Boxer, Barbara 1-202-224-3553 na D CA Feinstein, Dianne 1-202-224-3841 1-202-228-3954 D CO Campbell, Ben N. 1-202-224-5852 1-202-225-0228 R CO Brown, Henry 1-202-224-5941 1-202-224-6471 D CT Dodd, Christopher J. 1-202-224-2823 na D CT Lieberman, Joseph I. 1-202-224-4041 1-202-224-9750 D DE Biden Jr., Joseph R. 1-202-224-5042 1-202-224-0139 R DE Roth Jr. William V. 1-202-224-2441 1-202-224-2805 D FL Graham, Robert 1-202-224-3041 1-202-224-2237 R FL Mack, Connie 1-202-224-5274 1-202-224-8022 D GA Nunn, Samuel 1-202-224-3521 1-202-224-0072 R GA Coverdell, Paul 1-202-224-3643 1-202-228-3783 D HI Akaka, Daniel K. 1-202-224-6361 1-202-224-2126 D HI Inouye, Daniel K. 1-202-224-3934 1-202-224-6747 D IA Harkin, Thomas 1-202-224-3254 1-202-224-7431 R IA Grassley, Charles E. 1-202-224-3744 1-202-224-6020 R ID Craig, Larry E. 1-202-224-2752 1-202-224-2573 R ID Kempthorne, Dirk 1-202-224-6142 1-202-224-5893 D IL Moseley-Braun, Carol 1-202-224-2854 1-202-224-2626 D IL Simon, Paul 1-202-224-2152 1-202-224-0868 R IN Coats, Daniel R. 1-202-224-5623 1-202-224-8964 R IN Lugar, Richard G. 1-202-224-4814 1-202-224-7877 R KS Dole, Robert 1-202-224-6521 1-202-224-8952 R KS Kassebaum, Nancy L. 1-202-224-4774 1-202-224-3514 D KY Ford, Wendell H. 1-202-224-4343 1-202-224-0046 R KY McConnell, Mitch 1-202-224-2541 1-202-224-2499 D LA Breaux, John B. 1-202-224-4623 na D LA Johnston, J. Bennett 1-202-224-5824 1-202-224-2952 D MA Kennedy, Edward M. 1-202-224-4543 1-202-224-2417 D MA Kerry, John F. 1-202-224-2742 1-202-224-8525 D MD Mikulski, Barbara A. 1-202-224-4654 1-202-224-8858 D MD Sarbanes, Paul S. 1-202-224-4524 1-202-224-1651 R ME Snowe, Olympia 1-202-224-5344 1-202-224-6853 R ME Cohen, William S. 1-202-224-2523 1-202-224-2693 D MI Levin, Carl 1-202-224-6221 na R MI Abraham, Spencer 1-202-224-4822 1-202-224-8834 D MN Wellstone, Paul 1-202-224-5641 1-202-224-8438 R MN Grams, Rod 1-202-224-3244 1-202-224-9931 R MO Bond, Christopher S. 1-202-224-5721 1-202-224-8149 R MO Ashcroft, John 1-202-224-6154 na R MS Cochran, Thad 1-202-224-5054 1-202-224-3576 R MS Lott, Trent 1-202-224-6253 1-202-224-2262 D MT Baucus, Max 1-202-224-2651 na R MT Burns, Conrad R. 1-202-224-2644 1-202-224-8594 R NC Faircloth, D. M. 1-202-224-3154 1-202-224-7406 R NC Helms, Jesse 1-202-224-6342 1-202-224-7588 D ND Conrad, Kent 1-202-224-2043 1-202-224-7776 D ND Dorgan, Byron L. 1-202-224-2551 1-202-224-1193 D NE Exon, J. J. 1-202-224-4224 1-202-224-5213 D NE Kerrey, Bob 1-202-224-6551 1-202-224-7645 R NH Gregg, Judd 1-202-224-3324 1-202-224-4952 R NH Smith, Robert 1-202-224-2841 1-202-224-1353 D NJ Bradley, William 1-202-224-3224 1-202-224-8567 D NJ Lautenberg, Frank R. 1-202-224-4744 1-202-224-9707 D NM Bingaman, Jeff 1-202-224-5521 na R NM Domenici, Pete V. 1-202-224-6621 1-202-224-7371 D NV Bryan, Richard H. 1-202-224-6244 1-202-224-1867 D NV Reid, Harry 1-202-224-3542 1-202-224-7327 D NY Moynihan, Daniel P. 1-202-224-4451 na R NY D'Amato, Alfonse M. 1-202-224-6542 1-202-224-5871 D OH Glenn, John 1-202-224-3353 1-202-224-7983 R OH Dewine, Michael 1-202-224-2315 1-202-224-6519 R OK Inhofe, James 1-202-224-4721 R OK Nickles, Donald 1-202-224-5754 1-202-224-6008 R OR Hatfield, Mark O. 1-202-224-3753 1-202-224-0276 R OR Packwood, Robert 1-202-224-5244 1-202-228-3576 R PA Santorum, Rick 1-202-224-6324 1-202-228-4991 R PA Specter, Arlen 1-202-224-4254 1-202-224-1893 D RI Pell, Claiborne 1-202-224-4642 1-202-224-4680 R RI Chafee, John H. 1-202-224-2921 na D SC Hollings, Ernest F. 1-202-224-6121 1-202-224-4293 R SC Thurmond, Strom 1-202-224-5972 1-202-224-1300 D SD Daschle, Thomas A. 1-202-224-2321 1-202-224-2047 R SD Pressler, Larry 1-202-224-5842 1-202-224-1259* R TN Thompson, Fred 1-202-224-4944 1-202-228-3679 R TN Frist, Bill 1-202-224-3344 1-202-224-8062 R TX Hutchison, Kay Bailey 1-202-224-5922 1-202-224-0776 R TX Gramm, Phil 1-202-224-2934 1-202-228-2856 R UT Bennett, Robert 1-202-224-5444 1-202-224-6717 R UT Hatch, Orrin G. 1-202-224-5251 1-202-224-6331 D VA Robb, Charles S. 1-202-224-4024 1-202-224-8689 R VA Warner, John W. 1-202-224-2023 1-202-224-6295 D VT Leahy, Patrick J. 1-202-224-4242 1-202-224-3595 R VT Jeffords, James M. 1-202-224-5141 na D WA Murray, Patty 1-202-224-2621 1-202-224-0238 R WA Gorton, Slade 1-202-224-3441 1-202-224-9393 D WI Feingold, Russell 1-202-224-5323 na D WI Kohl, Herbert H. 1-202-224-5653 1-202-224-9787 D WV Byrd, Robert C. 1-202-224-3954 1-202-224-4025 D WV Rockefeller, John D. 1-202-224-6472 na R WY Simpson, Alan K. 1-202-224-3424 1-202-224-1315 R WY Thomas, Craig 1-202-224-6441 1-202-224-3230 ________________________________________________________________________ FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information on the Communications Decency Act, visit the following resources: Web Sites URL:http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon/ URL:http://epic.org/ URL:http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/ URL:http://www.cdt.org/cda.html 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.panix.com/11/vtw/exon URL:gopher://gopher.eff.org/11/Alerts Email: vtw@vtw.org (put "send help" in the subject line) cda-info@cdt.org (General CDA information) cda-stat@cdt.org (Current status of the CDA) ________________________________________________________________________ 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: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) infoaclu@aclu.org American Communication Association (ACA) comminfo@cavern.uark.edu American Council for the Arts Arts & Technology Society cyberguy@well.com biancaTroll productions bianca@bianca.com Californians Against Censorship Together BobbyLilly@aol.com Center For Democracy And Technology (CDT) info@cdt.org Centre for Democratic Communications (CDC) cshariff@aztec.co.za Center for Public Representation (CPR) mgpritch@facstaff.wisc.edu Computer Communicators Association community@pigpen.demon.co.uk Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility cpsr@cpsr.org Cross Connections staff@xconn.com Cyber-Rights Campaign cyber-rights@cpsr.org CyberQueer Lounge tomh@cyberzine.org Electronic Frontier Canada (EFC) efc@graceland.uwaterloo.ca Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) info@eff.org Electronic Frontier Foundation - Austin eff-austin@tic.com Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) efa-info@efa.org.au Electronic Frontiers Houston (EFH) efh@efh.org Electronic Frontiers New Hampshire (EFNH) efnh@mv.com Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) info@epic.org Feminists For Free Expression (FFE) FFE@aol.com First Amendment Teach-In croth@omnifest.uwm.edu Florida Coalition Against Censorship pipking@mail.firn.edu FACTS (Friendly Anti-Censorship Taskforce for Students) jt885291@oak.cats.ohiou.edu Hands Off! The Net baby-x@phanton.com Human Rights Watch (HRW) infohrw@hrw.org Inland Book Company David1756@aol.com Inner Circle Technologies, Inc. aka. NovaLink Inst. for Global Communications igc-info@igc.org National Libertarian Party 73163.3063@compuserve.com Libertarian Party (national) (LP) lphq@access.digex.net Marijuana Policy Project MPProject@AOL.com Metropolitan Data Networks Ltd. MindVox system@phantom.com National Bicycle Greenway cycleam@cruzio.com National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) ncac@netcom.com National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN) info@nptn.org National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981 AFL-CIO) kip@world.std.com Oregon Coast Rural Information Service Cooperative Panix Public Access Internet info@panix.com People for the American Way jlessern@reach.com Rock Out Censorship TWieseROC@aol.com Society for Electronic Access sea@sea.org The Thing International BBS Network (TTNet) info@thing.nyc.ny.us The WELL info@well.com Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) vtw@vtw.org (Note: All 'Electronic Frontier' organizations are independent entities, not EFF chapters or divisions.) [End of Alert] ------------------------------ Subject: Newsbytes ------------------ * Dole/Grassley Legislation Threatens Online Free Speech - Worse Than CDA [This summary provided by Center for Democracy & Technology, info@cdt.org] The Dole/Grassley bill would create new penalties in Title 18 for all operators of electronic communications services who knowingly transmit indecent material to anyone under 18 years of age. The bill would also create criminal liability for system operators who willfully permit minors to use an electronic communications service in order to obtain indecent material from another service. The Dole/Grassley bill would impose criminal liability on online service providers, electronic bulletin board operators, as well as any other entity that uses computer storage to deliver information to users, including video dialtone services, cable television video on demand services, etc. The degree of knowledge required to impose liability is unclear, but it appears that an entity could be said to have the requisite knowledge if it is merely informed by a third party that some material on its system is indecent. The text of the Dole/Grassley bill (currently unintroduced and without a bill number) is at: http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/dole_grassley_95.bill ftp.eff.org, /pub/Alerts/dole_grassley_95.bill gopher.eff.org, 1/Alerts, dole_grassley_95.bill * New Draft of Communications Decency Legislation Sen. Exon, the Dept. of Justice, and some unnamed online service providers have attempted to fix the "bugs" in the Exon/Gorton Communications Decency Act, recently folded into the Senate telecom reform bill, S.652. All in all, the amendment fixes only superficial problems, leaving the core faults of the bill intact. The revisions are not currently out of the draft stage as far as can be determined, but may be intended to be introduced by Exon on the Senate floor in an attempt to convince the Senate that the CDA is "fixed" and should be preferred over the Leahy counter-legislation. The draft changes various minor parts of the bill (e.g. changes "knowingly and willfully" to "knowingly"); allows but fails dismally to require that the implementation of technology to enable the user to restrict or prevent access to "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent" material may be used to avoid liability on the part of system operators; and separates out some offenses from others more clearly. The revisions also aim to satisfy the concerns the Justice Dept. had regarding the poorly written CDA's negative effect on law enforcement's ability to enforce "dial-a-porn" statutes and (to the DoJ's credit) its negative effect on the protection citizens enjoy under privacy laws. Whether the changes actually do address these problems is highly questionable. The Exon legislation revised by this draft amendment will remain unconstitutional, as it still attempts to ban expression protected by the First Amendment. Even the regulation of indecency has been limited by the courts to very narrowly defined circumstances - none of which apply to online media. Such restrictions, even if eventually overturned after years of expensive legal battles, will greatly hamper networking development and will stifle freedom of expression online, rendering all electronic communications subject to censorship so that adults are limited to accessing and expressing only that which is suitable for children. Additionally, the new version introduces a new problem: It protects only large commercial service providers from more-restrictive state laws. The draft states: "No State or local government may impose any liability for commercial activities or actions by commercial entities...that is inconsistent with the treatment of those violations under this section..." EFF concurs with the Center for Democracy & Technology in finding no valid argument for according greater protection to commercial than non-commercial speech. Indeed the entire history of commercial regulation and free speech jurisprudence in the U.S. points in the opposite direction. The CDA revisions would leave individuals, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, users' groups and all others besides commercial interests subject to whatever censorship measures states might wish to enact on whatever whim. The draft changes to the Exon bill, showing what was deleted and what was added, are available at: http://www.eff.org/pub/Legislation/Bills_by_number/s652_051995_amend.draft ftp.eff.org, /pub/Legislation/Bills_by_number/s652_051995_amend.draft gopher.eff.org, 1/EFF/Legislation/Bills_by_number, s652_051995_amend.draft * Sen. Lott to Attempt to Rip Sysop Defenses from Exon Bill CDT in their alert regarding the Dole/Grassley bill also note that Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) has announced plans to introduce an amendment to S.652 to remove all of the service provider defenses from the Exon language (the CDA). *This move would make the Exon bill even more of a privacy and free speech threat than the original Exon bill.* Holding system operators liable for the posts of users over which they hold no editorial control threatens to put most providers out of business, stifle free expression online, and force the remaining providers to become full-time censors and invaders of user privacy. [Apologies to those who also receive CDT newsletters and get essentially two copies of this information, but its relevance here and its effect on the now extreme urgency of the main action alert in this newsletter and on the Leahy petition drive requires at least summarizing the main points here again.] The text of the Lott amendment will be available as soon as we receive it from: http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/ ftp.eff.org, /pub/Alerts/ gopher.eff.org, 1/Alerts Look for a file with "lott" in the filename. * The Other Side of the Coin: Feinstein Bill v. Bomb Material Online Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has drafted an amendment to the Senate Comprehensive Terrorism Prevention bill, S.735, of Sen. Dole. Like the CDA revisions, this remains an unintroduced draft, on hold until its parent bill is in open discussion in the Senate. The draft intends to: "prohibit the dissemination of information on the making of explosive materials with intent or knowledge that such information will be used for a criminal purpose." The draft amendment would mandate up to twenty years in prison for anyone who "teach[es] or demonstrate[s] the making of explosive materials, or... disseminate[s] by any means information pertaining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture of explosive materials" if the person even "resonably should know" that such explosives or information "is [sic] likely to be used for, or in furtherance of, a federal offense or other criminal purpose affecting interstate commerce." Though the legislation does not directly mention the Internet, it is certainly drafted to apply to online media, and was inspired by what Feinstein perceives (or hears about in the media, since it is unlikely the Senator has actually ever logged in and found any bombmaking instructions online) as tools for terrorism on computer networks. The agenda is clear. Feinstein, herself a near-victim of a failed letter-bombing attempt, along with other legislators, representatives of the Administration, and spokespersons from the civil liberties community, participated in a May 11 Senate Terrorism Committee hearing on "The Availability of Bomb Making Information On The Internet". Feinstein suggested that bomb-making data be banned from the net, according to _Interactive_Week_. Calling such materials information that "teaches people to kill" she stated that it is "pushing the envelope of free speech to the extremes." Feinstein was asked, and did not answer, if she intended to ban such materials (e.g. the widely available _Anarchist_Cookbook_) from bookstores, after she suggested that the "doctrine of prior restraint is one we have to look at", because such information "isn't what this country is all about." Others likely to support the Feinstein amendment if introduced when the anti-terrorism bill hits the Senate floor include Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) and the Justice Department. Kohl at the same hearing commented that Americans would be shocked at the "dark back alleys of the Internet... In other words, the industry acts now, or Congress will do it for you... After all, if we have the technology to get kids on the Internet, we have should have the technology to get them off." Expanding on the overused outrage-generator of protecting kids from the evils of electronic communications, Dep. Asst. Atty. Gen. Robert Litt, testified, "Not only do would-be terrorists have access to detailed information on how to construct explosives, but so do children." Experienced BBS and Internet users may marvel at the seeming gullibility of these hearing pronouncements. It is clear that Kohl, Feinstein and Litt are unware, or choose to ignore, that most of the material they are decrying is actually written by minors - neither very accurate nor likely at all to be used by terrorists - and that far more reliable information on topics like the anatomy of a bomb can be had from most public libraries (e.g. in the _Encyclopaedia_Britannica_), and from the U.S. government itself. Brock Meeks writing for _Interactive_Week_ notes that the very bomb type used to destroy the Federal Building in Oklahoma City is covered in a "detailed recipe" in the Forestry Service's own readily available _Blaster's_Handbook_. Others at the hearing, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), warned against looking to censorship for a solution. Leahy retorted that the real problem is "harmful and dangerous conduct, not speech". Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who chaired the hearing, appeared to remain rather neutral on the issue, being neither certain that censorship and access restriction to online material was technically feasible, nor encouraged to call for censorship by the DoJ's admission that they had no evidence at all of crimes taking place as a result of information gathered from the Internet. The full text of the Feinstein draft can be found at http://www.eff.org/Bills_by_number/s735_95_feinstein_amend.draft ftp.eff.org, /pub/Legislation/Bills_by_number/s735_95_feinstein_amend.draft gopher.eff.org, 1/Legislation/Bills_by_number, s735_95_feinstein_amend.draft There's plenty more to worry about from this and other anti-terrorism legislation, most of which proposes one or more unconstitional "solutions" to perceived problems, and many of which seek to expand, in some cases radically, law enforcement and intelligence wiretapping authority and abilities. These bills, archived by bill number, are also available in the Bills_by_number directory at the sites above. * Prodigy Potentially Liable for User Postings In a case that could have major ramifications for BBS system operators and Internet newsgroup moderators, a New York state trial court ruled that communications service provider Prodigy Services Company may be liable for potentially libelous statements made by one of its users. Prodigy was sued by the securities investment banking firm of Stratton Oakmont, Inc., and its president, Daniel Porush, for statements made by an unidentified poster on Prodigy's Money Talk bulletin board. The statements claimed that Stratton Oakmont committed criminal and fraudulant acts in connection with the initial public offering of stock of Solomon-Page, Ltd. Stratton Oakmont and Porush sued Prodigy, the volunteer moderator of the Money Talk forum, and the anonymous user who made the postings. Prodigy filed a motion for summary judgment, asking to be dismissed from the case on the claim that Prodigy could not be held responsible for the postings of its users. On May 24, 1995, the court held that Prodigy had editorial control over the messages in the Money Talk forum and was therefore liable for the content of those messages. According to the New York Supreme Court (which is a trial level court in New York), Prodigy's policy of systematically monitoring messages made it liable for the content of these messages. In addition, the court held that since Prodigy directed and controlled the actions of volunteer Board Leaders, at least for the limited purpose of monitoring and editing the Money Talk bulletin board, Prodigy was responsible for the actions of its Board Leaders. ------------------------------ 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: Jun. 6, 1995 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@ncsu.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 July 5- 7 - Key Players in the Introduction of Information Technology: Their Social Responsibility & Professional Training; Namur, Belgium. Sponsored by CREIS. Email: nolod@ccr.jussieu.fr, clobet@info.fundp.ac.be July 5- 8 - Alliance for Community Media International Conference and Trade Show. [See Jan. 31 for proposal submission deadline info]. Contact: Alliance c/o MATV, 145 Pleasant St., Malden, MA 02148 Fax: (617) 321-7121; Voice: Rika Welsh (617) 321-6400 Email: matv@world.std.com July 5- 8 - 18th International Conf. on Research & Development in Information Retrieval; Sheraton Hotel, Seattle, Wash. Email: sigir95@u.washington.edu July 6- 7 ! Interoperability & the Economics of Information Infrastructure; Freedom Forum, Rosslyn, Virginia. IITF/NSF/Harvard/FFMSC joint workshop to "analyze and evaluate economic incentives and impediments to achieving interoperability in the National Information Infrastructure. The goal is to help agencies, associations, the Administration, and the Congress to develop sound policies for realizing the vision of a seamless, interoperating NII. Deadline for proposals: Mar. 17. Deadline for submissions: June 15. Contact: +1 617 495 8903 (voice), +1 617 495 5776 (fax) Email: kahin@harvard.edu July 11- 15 - '95 Joint International Conference: Association for Computers and the Humanties, and Association for Literacy and Linguistic Computing; UCSB, Santa Barbara, Calif. Will highlight the development of new computing methodologies for research and teaching in the humanities Contact: Eric Dahlin, +1 805 687 5003 (voice) Email: hcf1dahl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu July 22- 26 - Syllabus'95; Sonoma State U., Rohnert Park, Calif. "The premier conference covering the use of technology in the curriculum" Contact: 1-800-773-0670 (voice, US-only), +1 408 746 200 (voice, elsewhere) Email: syllabus@netcom.com ------------------------------ Subject: Quote of the Week -------------------------- In light of the advent of Sen. Feinstein's draft bill, we'll keep last issue's quote of the week for this issue too: "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 ------------------------ * Communications Decency Act (the Exon Legislation) 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 the replacement of Exon's communications decency language in the Senate telecom reform bill s.652 with S. 714, Sen. Leahy's alternative to the Comm. Decency Act. Explain quickly, clearly and politely, why you feel the Exon language is dangerous. S.652, the Senate telecom deregulation bill, now contains Sen. Exon's "Communications Decency Act" (formerly S.314.) The House version of the CDA, H.R.1004, is essentially stalled. The House telecom reform bill will almost certainly include the Leahy language, a fact that may be worth mentioning to your Senators. 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. * The Dole/Grassley Draft Internet Censorship Bill As above, contact your Senators, and ask them to oppose this legislation, and to support the Leahy amendment to S.652. * The Lott Draft Amendment to the Exon Legislation As above, contact your Senators, and ask them to oppose this amendment to the Senate Telecom Bill. Ask the to not only oppose this but oppose all of the Communications Decency Act, urging them to support the Leahy alternative, currently S.714. * The Feinstein Draft Internet Censorship Bill As above, contact your Senators, and ask them to oppose the addition of any such legislation, particular that authored by Sen. Feinstein, to the Dole "Comprehensive Terrorism Prevention Act", S.735. You may also wish to express your concerns about other civil liberties problems raised by the bill, and encourage your Senator to vote against such proposals until a proper study and period of public evaluation an input have taken place. * 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. If you do not know who your Representatives are, you should contact you local League of Women Voters, who typically maintain databases that can help you find out. * 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. 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