Dear CR,
An Internet Day of Protest is being organized for next Tuesday. I'm
posting the announcement to the list, FYI. There's been discussion among
your faithful CR co-leaders about this protest, and concern expressed about
the wisdom of its tactics. Arun expresses some of the reservations, below.
Comment?
-rkm
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Date: Sun, 10 Dec 1995
Sender: Arun Mehta <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: Should I post this notice?
> Spamming Congress will do very little good.
I entirely agree as far as sending them e-mail is concerned, which is
easy to ignore. But phoning your Congressperson when you are worked up
has a time-honored tradition...
~--<snip>--~
I think half a campaign is worse than none. Either it should be so big
that it hits the news, and people take notice because work on Capitol
Hill was paralysed, or whatever, but if just a few calls and faxes come
through, lawmakers can claim there isn't much support for the opposition.
It does worry me that if lawmakers get too much e-mail, that
potentially very effective medium will lose efficacy. Therefore it would
be a good idea if there were little more judicious use in campaigning.
Spamming should only occur in the rarest of circumstances. In this case,
the benefits are dubious, it seems to me.
So even if the decision is taken to post, for reasons of solidarity or
whatever, I would suggest we discourage the use of e-mail.
Arun
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Date: Sat, 9 Dec 1995
From: Phil Agre <•••@••.•••>
To: •••@••.•••
Subject: (ALERT) INTERNET DAY OF PROTEST TUESDAY DECEMBER 12, 1995
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 1995 11:06:32 -0500
From: •••@••.••• (Simson L. Garfinkel)
Subject: (ALERT) INTERNET DAY OF PROTEST TUESDAY DECEMBER 12, 1995
========================================================================
CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE NET CENSORSHIP LEGISLATION IN CONGRESS
On Tuesday December 12, 1995, Join With Hundreds of Thousands
Of Your Fellow Internet Users In
A NATIONAL INTERNET DAY OF PROTEST
PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT
REDISTRIBUTE ONLY UNTIL December 20, 1995
________________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS
Internet Day of Protest: Tuesday December 12, 1995
What You Must Do On Tuesday December 12, 1995
List of Participating Organizations
Where Can I Learn More?
________________________________________________________________________
INTERNET DAY OF PROTEST: TUESDAY DECEMBER 12, 1995
Outrageous proposals to censor the Internet demand that the Internet
Community take swift and immediate action. We must stand up and let
Congress know that we will not tolerate their attempts to destroy this
medium! Please join hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens in a
National Day of Protest on Tuesday December 12, 1995.
As you know, on Wednesday December 6, 1995, the House Conference
Committee on Telecommunications Reform voted to impose far reaching and
unconstitutional "indecency" restrictions on the Internet and other
interactive media, including large commercial online services (such as
America Online, Compuserve, and Prodigy) and smaller Internet Service
Providers such as Panix, the Well, Echo, and Mindvox.
These restrictions threaten the very existence of the Internet and
interactive media as a viable medium for free expression, education,
commerce. If enacted, the Internet as we know it will never be the
same.
Libraries will not be able to put any books online that might
offend a child somewhere. No "Catcher in the Rye" or "Ulysses" on the net.
Internet Service Providers could face criminal penalties for allowing
children to subscribe to their Internet Services, forcing many small
companies to simply refuse to sell their services to anyone under 18. Worst
of all, everything you say and publish on the net will have to be "dumbed
down" to that which is acceptable to a child.
As Internet users, we simply must not allow this assault against the
Internet and our most basic freedoms to go unchallenged.
On Tuesday December 12, the organizations below are urging you to
join us in a NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST. The goal is to flood key members of
the House and Senate with phone calls, faxes and email with the message
that the Internet community WILL NOT TOLERATE Congressional attempts to
destroy the Internet, limit our freedoms and trample on our rights.
Below are the phone, fax, and email address of several key members of
Congress on this issue and instructions on what you can do to join the
National Day of Protest to save the Net.
______________________________________________________________________
WHAT YOU MUST DO ON TUESDAY DECEMBER 12, 1995
1. Throughout the day Tuesday December 12, please contact as many
members of Congress on the list below as you can. If you are only
able to make one call, contact House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Finally,
if the Senator or Representative from your state is on the list
below, be sure to contact him or her also.
2. Urge each Member of Congress to "stop the madness". Tell them that
they are about to pass legislation that will destroy the Internet as
an educational and commercial medium. If you are at a loss for
words, try the following sample communique:
Sample phone call:
Both the House and Senate bills designed to protect children
from objectionable material on the Internet will actually
destroy the Internet as an medium for education, commerce, and
political discourse. There are other, less restrictive ways to
address this issue.
I urge you to oppose both measures being proposed in the
conference committee. This is an important election issue to
me.
Sample letter (fax or email):
The Senate conferees are considering ways to protect children
from inappropriate material on the Internet. A vote for either
the House or Senate proposals will result in the destruction of
the Internet as a viable medium for free expression, education,
commerce. Libraries will not be able to put their entire book
collections online. Everyday people like me will risk massive
fines and prison sentences for public discussions someone s
somewhere might consider "indecent".
There are other, less restrictive ways to protect children from
objectionable material online. This is an important election
issue to me.
3. If you're in San Francisco, or near enough to get there, go to
the Rally Against Censorship from Ground Zero of the Digital Revolution:
WHEN: Monday, December 11, 1995 12:00 - 1:00 PM
WHERE: South Park (between 2nd and 3rd, Bryant and Brannon) San Francisco.
SPEAKERS: To be announced
BRING: Attention-grabbing posters, signs, and banners that demonstrate
your committment to free speech and expression, and your feelings
about Congress.
FOR UPDATED INFORMATION (including rain info):
http://www.hotwired.com/staff/digaman/
### THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT ###
4. Mail a note to •••@••.••• to let us know you did your part.
Although you will not receive a reply due to the number of
anticipated responses, we'll be counting up the number of people that
participated in the day of protest.
P ST Name and Address Phone Fax
= == ======================== ============== ==============
R AK Stevens, Ted 1-202-224-3004 1-202-224-1044
R AZ McCain, John 1-202-224-2235 1-602-952-8702
•••@••.•••
D HI Inouye, Daniel K. 1-202-224-3934 1-202-224-6747
R KS Dole, Robert 1-202-224-6521 1-202-228-1245
D KY Ford, Wendell H. 1-202-224-4343 1-202-224-0046
•••@••.•••
R MS Lott, Trent 1-202-224-6253 1-202-224-2262
R MT Burns, Conrad R. 1-202-224-2644 1-202-224-8594
•••@••.•••
D NE Exon, J. J. 1-202-224-4224 1-202-224-5213
D SC Hollings, Ernest F. 1-202-224-6121 1-202-224-4293
•••@••.•••
R SD Pressler, Larry 1-202-224-5842 1-202-224-1259
•••@••.•••
R WA Gorton, Slade 1-202-224-3441 1-202-224-9393
•••@••.•••
D WV Rockefeller, John D. 1-202-224-6472 n.a.
•••@••.•••
Dist ST Name, Address, and Party Phone Fax
==== == ======================== ============== ==============
6 GA Gingrich, Newt (R) 1-202-225-4501 1-202-225-4656
2428 RHOB •••@••.•••
14 MI Conyers Jr., John (D) 1-202-225-5126 1-202-225-0072
2426 RHOB •••@••.•••
1 CO Schroeder, Patricia (D) 1-202-225-4431 1-202-225-5842
2307 RHOB
18 TX Jackson-Lee, Sheila (D) 1-202-225-3816 1-202-225-3317
1520 LHOB
6 TN Gordon, Bart (D) 1-202-225-4231 1-202-225-6887
2201 RHOB
4. Forward this alert to all of your wired friends.
________________________________________________________________________
WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE?
At this moment, there are several organizations with WWW sites that now
have, or will have, information about the net censorship legislation and
the National Day Of Protest:
American Civil Liberties Union (ftp://ftp.aclu.org/aclu/)
Center for Democracy and Technology (http://www.cdt.org/)
Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org/)
Electronic Privacy Information Center (http://www.epic.org/)
Wired Magazine (http://www.hotwired.com/special/indecent/)
Voters Telecommunications Watch (http://www.vtw.org/)
________________________________________________________________________
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 * Dorsai Embassy * 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
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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.
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