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EPIC Release on CDA Decision



Den brauch ich nicht zu kommentieren....
Rigo

>Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 11:29:28 -0400
>From: Dave Banisar <banisar@epic.org>
>Subject: EPIC Release on CDA Decision
>To: gilc-plan@gilc.org
>Reply-To: gilc-plan@gilc.org
>Errors-To: list-admin@gilc.org
>
>
>                      P R E S S   R E L E A S E
>
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:               CONTACT:
>Thursday, June 26, 1997              David L. Sobel (sobel@epic.org)
>10:45 a.m., ET                       202-544-9240
>
>
>         EPIC HAILS SUPREME COURT INTERNET "INDECENCY" DECISION:
>
>        OPINION "PRESERVES BOTH FREE SPEECH AND PERSONAL PRIVACY"
>
>WASHINGTON, DC -- The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) today
>hailed the Supreme Court's Internet speech decision as "the first landmark
>decision of the 21st Century."  In its first opinion involving cyberspace,
>the Court, by a 7-2 vote, struck down the online censorship provisions of
>the Communications Decency Act (CDA) (Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice
>O'Connor concurred in part and dissented in part).  EPIC participated in
>the litigation as both plaintiff and co-counsel.
>
>"Today's opinion defines the First Amendment for the next century,"
>according to EPIC Legal Counsel David Sobel, who served as co-counsel in
>Reno v. ACLU.  "The Court has written on a clean slate and established the
>fundamental principles that will govern free speech issues for the
>electronic age."
>
>Sobel said that today's landmark decision "preserves both free speech and
>personal privacy in this rapidly growing medium."  Throughout the
>litigation of the case, EPIC has stressed that the CDA not only infringed
>on Americans' free speech rights, but also posed a grave threat to personal
>privacy.  By requiring "speakers" on the Internet to verify the age and
>identity of all potential recipients of "indecent" material, the law would
>have destroyed the anonymity that is a hallmark of online communications.
>EPIC noted that a good deal of sensitive information -- dealing with AIDS
>prevention, teenage pregnancy, and other critical social issues -- would
>not be sought out if recipients were required to identify themselves.
>
>EPIC joined with the American Civil Liberties Union and 18 other plaintiffs
>in challenging the law on February 8, 1996, the day it was signed by
>President Clinton.  A three-judge federal court panel in Philadelphia
>unanimously ruled on June 11, 1996, that the Internet "indecency"
>provisions violated the First Amendment's free speech protections.  That
>decision was today affirmed by the  United States Supreme Court.
>
>A copy of the Court's decision is available at:
>
>      http://www2.epic.org/cda/cda_decision.html
>
>EPIC is a non-profit research organization established in 1994 to examine
>civil liberties and privacy issues arising in new electronic media.
>
>
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