[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Free expression update: Victoria's Secret, libraries

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Tue, 20 Nov 2001 23:31:51 -0500
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: Free expression update: Victoria's Secret, libraries, Safeweb
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com


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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-111801inform.story

    By ERIC LICHTBLAU, Times Staff Writer
    WASHINGTON -- The document seemed innocuous enough: a survey of
    government data on reservoirs and dams on CD-ROM. But then came
    last month's federal directive to U.S. libraries: "Destroy the
    report." So a Syracuse University library clerk broke the disc
    into pieces, saving a single shard to prove that the deed was
    done. The unusual order from the Government Printing Office
    reflects one of the hidden casualties of the Sept. 11 terrorist
    attacks: the public's shrinking access to information that many
    once took for granted. Want to find out whether there are any
    hazardous waste sites near the local day-care center? What safety
    controls are in place at nuclear power plants? Or how many people
    are incarcerated in terrorist-related probes? Since Sept. 11, it
    has become much harder to get such information from the federal
    government, a growing number of states and public libraries as
    heightened concern about national security has often trumped the
    public's "right to know:" [...]

---

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/bpihw/20011118/en/fcc_looks_into_abc_s_se
cret__1.html

    Sunday November 18 07:25 PM EST
    FCC looks into ABC's 'Secret'

    WASHINGTON (The Hollywood Reporter) --- ABC's airing of "The
    Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" is likely to cause the network
    more than a little discomfort as the federal government has
    received dozens of complaints that the G-string-laced show and its
    related promotions violate broadcast indecency rules. FCC (news -
    web sites) commissioner Michael Copps told reporters Friday that
    he has received 50 e-mails from different parts of the country
    complaining about the racy show and its promotions. One of the
    complaints was of a more personal nature -- Copps' 27-year-old
    daughter had a complaint about the show. "She saw it and was
    upset," Copps said. "She's a new mother, and when her child gets
    (to a) TV age, he should see wholesome programming." He said he
    was forwarding the complaints to the FCC's Enforcement Bureau and
    asking it to investigate whether it violated indecency
    regulations. [...]

---

http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/11/20/privacy.reut/index.html

    SafeWeb shuts free anonymous Web service
    SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- An Internet privacy firm
    has closed an anonymous Web surfing service that had been partly
    funded by the CIA and intended to give Web users in countries such
    as China and Iran a way to circumvent censors, the company said
    Monday. Emeryville, California-based SafeWeb last week quietly
    shut down its service which allowed people to surf the Web
    anonymously for free, and is unlikely to restart it, spokeswoman
    Sandra Song said. [...]

---

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-cards14.story
    By Graham Rayman
    STAFF WRITER
    November 15, 2001, 5:27 PM EST
    Requiring national identification cards and upgrading security at
    what they described as the "totally unsupervised" area of private
    aviation, were two recommendations offered Thursday by a panel of
    current and former law enforcement officials. [...]

---

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011119/tc/anthrax_internet_1.html

    U.S. Warns Bioterror Web Sites
    By DAVID HO, Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is warning dozens of Web site
    operators to stop touting unproven treatments for anthrax,
    smallpox and other infectious agents that could be used for
    bioterrorism. The treatments offered included dietary supplements
    such as oregano oil and zinc mineral water, the Federal Trade
    Commission said Monday. [...]

---

http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172263.html

    By Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post
    WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A.,
    19 Nov 2001, 5:43 AM CST

    Yahoo's message boards are erupting with the kind of
    free-flowing, impassioned discussions the Internet's creators
    always dreamed of, with postings about practically every aspect of
    the hunt for terrorists, the capture of Kabul and mysterious plane
    crashes. But what's also revealing is what is being deleted. Gone
    are some gloating messages that say America deserved the attacks.
    Gone are some links to extremist sites promoting a jihad, or holy
    war, against the Western world. Gone too is a sarcastic note
    posted by college student Usman Sheikh: "America succesfully [sic]
    attacks terrorists, pinpoint smart bombing," the note began,
    linking to pictures of bloody children who were hurt or killed as
    a result of the recent military raids. [...]

---

http://www.satirewire.com/news/0111/aclu.shtml

    ACLU TAKES OVER TERROR INVESTIGATION, WILL
    FOCUS ATTENTION ON NO ONE IN PARTICULAR
    "We Must Ask Nebraskans, Not Just Middle Easterners, What They
    Know"

    Washington, D.C. (SatireWire.com) -- Sensitive to accusations of
    profiling specific groups, the Justice Department today announced
    that the American Civil Liberties Union has taken over the lead
    role in the terrorism investigation, a shift in strategy that
    frees up the government to conduct a less prejudicial, more
    inclusive probe that should take, roughly, forever.

    "Instead of un-Constitutionally targeting specific groups, our
    investigation will expand the pool of interviews by more fairly
    including people of every ethnicity, every religion, every gender,
    and every sexual persuasion," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony
    D. Romero. "Right now, we are interviewing Caucasian farmers in
    Iowa, legally blind Wal-Mart employees in California, and gay
    Latino package store customers in Florida to see if they had
    contact with, or were involved with, those from the Middle East
    who carried out these attacks."

    [...]

---

Hi Declan. If you choose to disseminate this information, please
remove all attribution to me and keep it anonymous. Under the onerous
and archaic contempt of court laws in Singapore, I have just committed
contempt.

Thanks.

--- Forward Message ---

(Pardon the bad formatting...)

This is outrageous.

In yesterday's Sunday Times (18 November 2001), there was a story
entitled "Man allegedly 'encouraged law-breaking on Web'".
(http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,1870,84976-
1006120740,00.html?)

Robert Ho was accused of attempting to incite violence or disobedience
to the law which is likely to lead to a breach of peace, by posting an
article entitled "Break The Law And Get Away With It, Like PAP"
(http://groups.google.com/groups?
q=soc.culture.singapore+break+the+law&hl=en&rnum=2&selm=c443dfe.011019
0220.221cc 721%40posting.google.com), which allegedly encouraged
people to gatecrash polling stations without authority on Polling Day,
thereby breaking the law.

Read the articles and decide whether he did incite people to break the
law. Because if any judge finds that he did, then by definition 4 of
Singapore's political leaders have also broken the law.

---




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