New Censorship Legislation in the US (fwd)

[Rigobert Wenning <wenning2@rz.uni-sb.de>]

Hallo Leute, 

ich habe das heute erst gesehen. 

Einfach FYI

Gruss 

Rigo



Forwarded message:
> From gilc-plan@gilc.org  Wed Jul 22 03:48:58 1998
> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 21:45:23 -0400
> Message-Id: <3.0.3.32.19980721214523.00919e20@208.151.193.2>
> From: Barry Steinhardt <Barrys@eff.org>
> Subject: New Censorship Legislation in the US
> To: gilc-plan@gilc.org
> Mime-Version: 1.0
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> Reply-To: gilc-plan@gilc.org
> Errors-To: list-admin@gilc.org
> 
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> July 21, 1998
> 
> CONTACTS:
>   Barry Steinhardt, EFF President, 212 549 2508, E-mail barrys@eff.org
>   Alexander Fowler, EFF Director of Public Affairs, 202 462 5826,
>     E-mail afowler@eff.org
> 
> ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION REACTS TO SENATE PASSAGE OF TWO INTERNET
> FILTERING BILLS
> 
> 
> Statement of Barry Steinhardt
> President of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
> 
> This afternoon the Senate passed two draconian bills that would ultimately
> prevent access to a wide array of content on the Internet.  The two bills
> were passed as an amendment to an appropriations bill for the Commerce,
> Justice and State Department.  They were brought up without any notice to
> those members of the Senate who opposed them and without any opportunity for
> meaningful debate.  In effect, free speech on the Internet was the victim of
> an ambush.
> 
> The first amendment offered by Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Patty
> Murray (D-Washington) would require schools and libraries that receive
> federal funds for Internet connections to install filtering software to
> block inappropriate material.  The second, "the CDA II" bill sponsored by
> Senator Dan Coats (R-IN) would enact a wide ranging ban on Web posting of
> material deemed "harmful to minors."
> 
> The two bills represent a real and present danger to free speech on the
> Internet.  The McCain/Murray amendment will force libraries and schools to
> use all too frequently crude and overbroad filters that block out a wide
> array of non-"indecent" speech -- everything from the Quaker home page to
> the American Association of University Women has been blocked by these
> programs.
> 
> Indeed, you can no more create a computer program to block out one community's
> view of "indecency" or "obscenity" than you can devise a filtering program
> to block out misguided proposals by members of Congress.  Both may be
> desirable, but neither are possible.
> 
> At first glance, the Coats' CDA II bill appears to be a relatively benign
> provision that purportedly applies only to commercial pornographers who
> market to minors.  But it is a Trojan horse.  Beneath the veneer, it covers
> any Web site that has a commercial component and which has material that
> some community will consider "harmful to minors."  This ranges from the
> electronic bookseller Amazon.com to the EFF's site, which sells books and
> T-Shirts.
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> 
> Barry Steinhardt	        	East Coast Phone  212 549 2508
> President				East Coast Fax   212 549 2656
> Electronic Frontier Foundation  	West Coast Phone 415 436 9333 ext 102
> 1550 Bryant St. Suite 725       	West Coast Fax   415 436 9993	
> San Francisco, CA 94103		<http://www.eff.org>
> Barrys@eff.org
> 
>