Petition to protect freedom of expression on the internet

[Chet Ensign <Chet_Ensign%LDS -at- NOTES -dot- WORLDCOM -dot- COM>]

All,

I pass the following message along to members of the techwr-l mailing list. It
came from the electronic publishing mailing list at epbu -at- digital -dot- cosn -dot- org -dot- 
Although the topic is political -- specifically, it is a request for electronic
signatures on a petition opposing the "Communications Decency Act of 1995" -- I
thought the topic, the impact of requiring censorship of all communications
across the internet, would concern everyone here.

I'm out on the road, without full internet access, I have not checked the
various gov't web sites to make sure that this bill is, in fact, active in the
Senate. I'm taking the posting at face value. Perhaps someone else here can
check out the details. If the bill is really going before the Senate, however,
I think it is in our best interests to take a stand against it.

Best regards,

/chet
Chet Ensign

<-- text of included message -->

OK, friends,
        Here's a quick overview of what this is all about.  Right now
there's a bill in the Senate that is proposing to enforce strict monitoring
of all information that goes through an internet service provider's
computer.  This may mean that, if the bill becomes law, you will never be
able to send private e-mail again (It will be read by a censure before it
reaches it's destination), but, it will probably mean that you won't be
able to ever send e-mail (or use talk, or chat, or the WWW) again at all.
This is because few providers can afford to read the volumes of information
that go through their systems every day.

        Further explanation of this is below, but I wanted to be very
clear...  IF you like to use your internet priveledges, read the
instructions, and sign the petition.  Also, forward this message to
everybody that you know that has an internet account.
                                -Andy
                                 AnHolleman -at- vaxsar -dot- vassar -dot- edu

*** PROTECT THE INTERNET. READ THIS MESSAGE ***

This document is an electronic Petition Statement to the
U.S. Congress regarding pending legislation, the
"Communications Decency Act of 1995" (S. 314) which will
have, if passed, very serious negative ramifications for
freedom of expression on Usenet, the Internet, and all
electronic networks.  The proposed legislation would remove
guarantees of privacy and free speech on all electronic
networks, including the Internet, and may even effectively
close them down as a medium to exchange ideas and
information.

For an excellent analysis of this Bill by the Center for
Democracy and Technology (CDT), refer to the Appendix
attached at the end of this document.  The text to S. 314
is also included in this Appendix.

This document is somewhat long, but the length is necessary
to give you sufficient information to make an informed
decision.  Time is of the essence, we are going to turn
this petition and the signatures in on 3/16/95, so if you
are going to sign this please do so ASAP or at least before
midnight Wednesday, March 15, 1995.

Even if you read this petition after the due date, please
submit your signature anyway as we expect Congress to
continue debating these issues in the foreseeable future
and the more signatures we get, the more influence the
petition will have on discussion.  And even if Congress
rejects S. 314 while signatures are being gathered, do
submit your signature anyway for the same reason.

Please do upload this petition statement as soon as
possible to any BBS and on-line service in your area.
If you have access to one of the major national on-line
services such as CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL, etc., do try
to upload it there.  We are trying to get at least 5000
signatures.  Even more signatures are entirely possible
if we each put in a little effort to inform others, such
as friends and coworkers, about the importance of this
petition to electronic freedom of expression.

Here is a brief table of contents:

(1) Introduction (this section)
(2) The Petition Statement
(3) Instructions for signing this petition
(4) Credits
(Appendix) Analysis and text of S. 314 (LONG but excellent)


******(2) The Petition Statement

In united voice, we sign this petition against passage of S. 314 (the
"Communications Decency Act of 1995") for these reasons:

S. 314 would prohibit not only individual speech that is "obscene, lewd,
lascivious, filthy, or indecent", but would prohibit any provider of
telecommunications service from carrying such traffic, under threat of
stiff penalty.  Even aside from the implications for free speech, this
would cause an undue - and unjust - burden upon operators of the various
telecommunications services.  In a time when the citizenry and their
lawmakers alike are calling for and passing "no unfunded mandates" laws
to the benefit of the states, it is unfortunate that Congress might seek to
impose unfunded mandates upon businesses that provide the framework for
the information age.

An additional and important consideration is the technical feasibility of
requiring the sort of monitoring this bill would necessitate.  The
financial burden in and of itself - in either manpower or technology to
handle such monitoring (if even legal under the Electronic Communications
Privacy Act) - would likely cause many smaller providers to go out of
business, and most larger providers to seriously curtail their services.

The threat of such penalty alone would result in a chilling effect in the
telecommunications service community, not only restricting the types of
speech expressly forbidden by the bill, but creating an environment
contrary to the Constitutional principles of free speech, press, and
assembly - principles which entities such as the Internet embody as
nothing has before.

By comparison, placing the burden for content control upon each individual
user is surprisingly simple in the online and interactive world, and there
is no legitimate reason to shift that burden to providers who carry that
content.  Unlike traditional broadcast media, networked media is
comparatively easy to screen on the user end - giving the reader, viewer,
or participant unparalleled control over his or her own information
environment.  All without impacting or restricting what any other user
wishes to access.  This makes regulation such as that threatened by this
S. 314 simply unnecessary.

In addition, during a period of ever-increasing commercial interest in
arenas such as the Internet, restriction and regulation of content or the
flow of traffic across the various telecommunications services would have
serious negative economic effects.  The sort of regulation proposed by this
bill would slow the explosive growth the Internet has seen, giving the
business community reason to doubt the medium's commercial appeal.

We ask that the Senate halt any further progress of this bill.  We ask
that the Senate be an example to Congress as a whole, and to the nation
at large - to promote the general welfare as stated in the Preamble to
the Constitution by protecting the free flow of information and ideas
across all of our telecommunications services.


******(3) Instructions for signing the petition


          ======================================
          Instructions for Signing This Petition
          ======================================
It must first be noted that this is a petition, not a
vote.  By "signing" it you agree with *all* the requests
made in the petition.  If you do not agree with everything
in this petition, then your only recourse is to not sign
it.

In addition, all e-mail signatures will be submitted to
Congress, the President of the United States, and the
news media.

Including your full name is optional, but *very highly
encouraged* as that would add to the effectiveness of the
petition.  Signing via an anonymous remailer is highly
discouraged, but not forbidden, as an attempt will be made
to separately tally signatures from anonymous remailers.

Because this is a Petition to the U.S. Congress, we ask
that you state, as instructed below, whether or not you
are a U.S. citizen.  We do encourage non-U.S. citizens to
sign, but their signatures will be tallied separately.

Signing this petition is not hard, but to make sure your
signature is not lost or miscounted, please follow these
directions EXACTLY:

1) Prepare an e-mail message.  In the main body (NOT the
Subject line) of your e-mail include the ONE-LINE statement:

SIGNED <Internet e-mail address> <Full name> <US Citizen>

You need not include the "<" and ">" characters. 'SIGNED'
should be capitalized.  As stated above, your full name is
optional, but highly recommended.  If you do supply your
name, please don't use a pseudonym or nickname, or your
first name -- it's better to just leave it blank if it's
not your full and real name.  If you are a U.S. citizen,
please include at the end of the signature line a 'YES',
and if you are not, a 'NO'.  All signatures will be
tallied whether or not you are a U.S. Citizen

****************************************************
Example: My e-mail signature would be:

SIGNED dave -at- kachina -dot- altadena -dot- ca -dot- us Dave C. Hayes YES
****************************************************

2) Please DON'T include a copy of this petition, nor any
other text, in your e-mail message.  If you have comments
to make, send e-mail to me personally, and NOT to the
special petition e-mail signature address.

3) Send your e-mail message containing your signature to
the following Internet e-mail address and NOT to me:


              ===========================
                s314-petition -at- netcom -dot- com
              ===========================

4) Within a few days of receipt of your signature, an
automated acknowledgment will be e-mailed to you for e-mail
address verification purposes.  You do not need to respond or
reply to this acknowledgement when you receive it.  We may
also contact you again in the future should we need more
information, such as who your House Representative and
Senators are, which is not asked here as it is unclear
whether such information is needed.

Thank you for signing this petition!


******(4) Credits

The petition statement was written by slowdog
<slowdog -at- wookie -dot- net>, super.net.freedom.fighter.

The rest of this document mostly collated from the net
by Dave Hayes, net.freedom.fighter.

Much help came from Jon Noring, INFJ and
self.proclaimed.net.activist who made a few
suggestions and will be tallying the signatures.

Thanks to the EFF and CDT for the excellent analysis of
the bill.

(p.s., send your signature to s314-petition -at- netcom -dot- com)


******(Appendix) Analysis and text of S. 314
[This analysis provided by the Center for Democracy and
Technology, a non-profit public interest organization.
CDT's mission is to develop and advocate public policies
that advance Constitutional civil liberties and democratic
values in new computer and communications technologies.
For more information on CDT, ask Jonah Seiger
<jseiger -at- cdt -dot- org>.]

CDT POLICY POST 2/9/95

SENATOR EXON INTRODUCES ONLINE INDECENCY LEGISLATION

A.  OVERVIEW

Senators Exon (D-NE) and Senator Gorton (R-WA) have
introduced legislation to expand current FCC regulations
on obscene and indecent audiotext to cover *all* content
carried over all forms of electronic communications
networks.  If enacted, the "Communications Decency Act of
1995" (S. 314) would place substantial criminal liability
on telecommunications service providers (including
telephone networks, commercial online services, the
Internet, and independent BBS's) if their network is used
in the transmission of any indecent, lewd, threatening or
harassing messages.  The legislation is identical to a
proposal offered by Senator Exon last year which failed
along with the Senate Telecommunications reform bill (S.
1822, 103rd Congress, Sections 801 - 804). The text the
proposed statute, with proposed amendment, is appended at
the end of this document.

The bill would compel service providers to chose between
severely restricting the activities of their subscribers
or completely shutting down their email, Internet access,
and conferencing services under the threat of criminal
liability.  Moreover, service providers would be forced to
closely monitor every private communication, electronic
mail message, public forum, mailing list, and file archive
carried by or available on their network, a proposition
which poses a substantial threat to the freedom of speech
and privacy rights of all American citizens.

S. 314, if enacted, would represent a tremendous step
backwards on the path to a free and open National
Information Infrastructure.  The bill raises fundamental
questions about the ability of government to control
content on communications networks, as well as the locus
of liability for content carried in these new
communications media.

To address this threat to the First Amendment in digital
media, CDT is working to organize a broad coalition of
public interest organizations including the ACLU, People
For the American Way, and Media Access Project, along with
representatives from the telecommunications, online
services, and computer industries to oppose S. 314 and to
explore alternative policy solutions that preserve the
free flow of information and freedom of speech in the
online world.  CDT believes that technological
alternatives which allow individual subscribers to control
the content they receive represent a more appropriate
approach to this issue.


B.  SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF S. 314

S. 314 would expand current law restricting indecency and
harassment on telephone services to all telecommunications
providers and expand criminal liability to *all* content
carried by *all* forms of telecommunications networks.
The bill would amend Section 223 of the Communications Act
(47 U.S.C. 223), which requires carriers to take steps to
prevent minors from gaining access to indecent audiotext
and criminalizes harassment accomplished over interstate
and criminalizes harassment accomplished over interstate
telephone lines.  This section, commonly known as the
Helms Amendment (having been championed by Senator Jesse
Helms), has been the subject of extended Constitutional
litigation in recent years.

* CARRIERS LIABLE FOR CONDUCT OF ALL USERS ON THEIR
  NETWORKS

S. 314 would make telecommunication carriers (including
telephone companies, commercial online services, the
Internet, and BBS's) liable for every message, file, or
other content carried on its network -- including the
private conversations or messages exchanged between two
consenting individuals.

Under S. 314, anyone who "makes, transmits, or otherwise
makes available any comment, request, suggestion,
proposal, image, or other communication" which is
"obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent" using a
"telecommunications device" would be subject to a fine of
$100,000 or two years in prison (Section (2)(a)).

In order to avoid liability under this provision, carriers
would be forced to pre-screen all messages, files, or
other content before transmitting it to the intended
recipient.  Carriers would also be forced to prevent or
severely restrict their subscribers from communicating
with individuals and accessing content available on other
networks.

Electronic communications networks do not contain discrete
boundaries.  Instead, users of one service can easily
communicate with and access content available on other
networks.  Placing the onus, and criminal liability, on
the carrier as opposed to the originator of the content,
would make the carrier legally responsible not only for
the conduct of its own subscribers, but also for content
generated by subscribers of other services.