@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995
From: "Shabbir J. Safdar" <•••@••.•••>
To: •••@••.•••
Subject: ALERT: House is lost; we must call the Senate
========================================================================
CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE NET CENSORSHIP LEGISLATION IN CONGRESS
(INCLUDING THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT AND THE HYDE AMDT)
Short Update: The House Conference Committee voted for a terrible
bill.
What You Can Do Now: Call the Senate conferees and tell them to
oppose the infringements on free speech.
CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL NET CENSORSHIP LEGISLATION
Dec 6, 1995
PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT
REDISTRIBUTE ONLY UNTIL December 20, 1995
REPRODUCE THIS ALERT ONLY IN RELEVANT FORUMS
________________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS
The Latest News
What You Can Do Now
List of Participating Organizations (changed)
________________________________________________________________________
THE LATEST NEWS
Today the House Conference committee voted to criminalize "indecent
material" on electronic networks. The Christian Coalition, which has
pushed for such restrictions throughout the year, now smells blood and
is closing in for the kill. If we lose the Senate Conference Committee
vote, we will have lost a tremendous amount of our First Amendment
rights. All content on the Internet will be dumbed down to the level of
Saturday morning cartoons.
Parents, educators, libraries and individuals who post anything on the
Internet that someone, somewhere considers indecent will be subject
to jail time and fines. Traditional fiction and many great works of
art will fall prey to this law.
Even if the Federal government does not prosecute every violation of
this law, the chilling effect on speech throughout the United States will
be severe. Intimidation is a tremendous persuader.
Please call now and tell the Senate conferees to oppose the unconstitutional
indecency restrictions in the Telecomm.
For a more detailed analysis of the language that passed, check the WWW
or Gopher sites of the ACLU, CDT, EFF, and EPIC.
Three more alerts, after this one, are expected: the full House floor vote
on the Telecomm bill, the full Senate floor vote on the Telecomm bill, and
then the unlikely Presidential veto.
________________________________________________________________________
WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW
1. All of the proposals available to the conference committee will
fundamentally restrict your speech on the Internet and other public
networks. Look at the list below and call the Senators in your
state and ask them to oppose them. If none of the members are in
your state, call Sen. Dole.
If we cannot convince the conference committee to make the right
choices at this juncture, we will have positioned the Internet
community as vulnerable to widespread arrests throughout the next
few years.
If you're at a loss for words, try one of the following:
Please oppose the unconstitutional Internet indecency restrictions,
such as those passed by the House conference committee Telecomm bill
and those proposed by Sen. J.J. Exon. They will criminalize many
forms of expression, including much art, music, and literature
which should be protected by the First Amendment.
or
As a religious person and a parent, I oppose all the
unconstitutional indecency restrictions currently proposed in the
Telecomm bill. I, the parent, am the best person to monitor my
child's access to the Internet.
or
Although there is information on the Internet that I wouldn't
allow my children to see, I don't agree with all the proposals in
the Telecomm bill that would censor indecent material on the
Internet. I have parental control tools that are far more
effective at controlling my children's access to the Internet
than the legislation being proposed.
Senate members of the Conference Committee
P ST Name and Address Phone Fax
= == ======================== ============== ==============
R MT Burns, Conrad R. 1-202-224-2644 1-202-224-8594
D HI Inouye, Daniel K. 1-202-224-3934 1-202-224-6747
D SC Hollings, Ernest F. 1-202-224-6121 1-202-224-4293
D WV Rockefeller, John D. 1-202-224-6472 n.a.
D NE Exon, J. J. 1-202-224-4224 1-202-224-5213
R AZ McCain, John 1-202-224-2235 1-602-952-8702
R SD Pressler, Larry 1-202-224-5842 1-202-224-1259
R WA Gorton, Slade 1-202-224-3441 1-202-224-9393
R AK Stevens, Ted 1-202-224-3004 1-202-224-1044
R MS Lott, Trent 1-202-224-6253 1-202-224-2262
D KY Ford, Wendell H. 1-202-224-4343 1-202-224-0046
R KS Dole, Robert 1-202-224-6521 1-202-228-1245
2. Send mail to •••@••.••• and let us know how it went.
$ Mail •••@••.•••
Subject: phoned Senator XXX
They thanked me for my opinion and said they had received many
calls speaking out against net censorship.
^D
Mail sent!
3. If you run any sort of system that allows a welcome message for all
users, please add the following:
The Christian Coalition and others are lobbying for broad
infringements on free speech net by passing legislation that "dumb
down" Internet content to that which is acceptable to children. In
addition, services like this one might become liable for what their
users say and read on the Internet. Please call Congress now; for
more info URL:http://www.vtw.org/ or send mail to •••@••.••• with
"send alert" in the subject line. (12/6/95)
If you have a Web page that gets a lot of traffic, please add the
following link:
<a href="http://www.vtw.org/">
Stop the Christian Coalition and others from restricting your
online speech! (12/6/95)</a>
4. This is a very tense week. All indications are that a very very
bad bill will get passed.
________________________________________________________________________
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.
American Civil Liberties Union * American Communication Association *
American Council for the Arts * Arts & Technology Society * Association
of Alternative Newsweeklies * biancaTroll productions * Boston
Coalition for Freedom of Expression * Californians Against Censorship
Together * Center For Democracy And Technology * Centre for Democratic
Communications * Center for Public Representation * Citizen's Voice -
New Zealand * Cloud 9 Internet *Computer Communicators Association *
Computel Network Services * Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility * Cross Connection * Cyber-Rights Campaign * CyberQueer
Lounge * Dutch Digital Citizens' Movement * ECHO Communications Group,
Inc. * Electronic Frontier Canada * Electronic Frontier Foundation *
Electronic Frontier Foundation - Austin * Electronic Frontiers
Australia * Electronic Frontiers Houston * Electronic Frontiers New
Hampshire * Electronic Privacy Information Center * Feminists For Free
Expression * First Amendment Teach-In * Florida Coalition Against
Censorship * FranceCom, Inc. Web Advertising Services * Friendly
Anti-Censorship Taskforce for Students * Hands Off! The Net * Inland
Book Company * Inner Circle Technologies, Inc. * Inst. for Global
Communications * Internet On-Ramp, Inc. * Internet Users Consortium *
Joint Artists' and Music Promotions Political Action Committee * The
Libertarian Party * Marijuana Policy Project * Metropolitan Data
Networks Ltd. * MindVox * MN Grassroots Party * National Bicycle
Greenway * National Campaign for Freedom of Expression * National
Coalition Against Censorship * National Gay and Lesbian Task Force *
National Public Telecomputing Network * National Writers Union * Oregon
Coast RISC * Panix Public Access Internet * People for the American Way
* Republican Liberty Caucus * Rock Out Censorship * Society for
Electronic Access * The Thing International BBS Network * The WELL *
Voters Telecommunications Watch
(Note: All 'Electronic Frontier' organizations are independent entities,
not EFF chapters or divisions.)
________________________________________________________________________
End Alert
========================================================================
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
Posted by Richard K. Moore <•••@••.•••>
Wexford, Ireland (USA citizen)
Editor: The Cyberjournal (@CPSR.ORG)
See the CyberLib at:
http://www.internet-eireann.ie/cyberlib
See Cyber-Rights library:
http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/
You are encouraged to forward and cross-post messages and online materials
for non-commercial use, provided they are copied in their entirety, with
all headers, signatures, etc., intact.
~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
