From beeson@aclu.org Fri Aug 4 09:38:04 1995 Received: from panix4.panix.com (panix4.panix.com [198.7.0.5]) by eff.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id JAA22916; Fri, 4 Aug 1995 09:37:58 -0400 Received: from mail.nyc.pipeline.com (root@mail.nyc.pipeline.com [198.80.32.13]) by panix4.panix.com (8.6.12/8.6.12+PanixU1.1) with ESMTP id JAA07757 for ; Fri, 4 Aug 1995 09:36:22 -0400 Received: from pipe2.nyc.pipeline.com (pipe2.nyc.pipeline.com [198.80.32.42]) by mail.nyc.pipeline.com (8.6.10/8.6.10) with ESMTP id JAA01772; Fri, 4 Aug 1995 09:36:13 -0400 From: Ann Beeson Received: (beeson@localhost) by pipe2.nyc.pipeline.com (8.6.9/8.6.9) id JAA07343; Fri, 4 Aug 1995 09:36:12 -0400 Date: Fri, 4 Aug 1995 09:36:12 -0400 Message-Id: <199508041336.JAA07343@pipe2.nyc.pipeline.com> To: stop314@panix.com, roundtable@cni.org, cyber-rights@sunnyside.com Subject: ACLU Cyber-Liberties Alert: House Adopts Exon-Like Speech Crimes Status: RO 8/4/95 ACLU Cyber-Liberties Alert: House Adopts Exon-Like Speech Crimes --------------------------------------------------------- At 9:10 am today, the House of Representatives voted to create new Exon-like speech crimes that would censor the Internet. The speech crimes provisions were part of an omnibus so-called "Managers Amendment" to the telco bill (HR 1555) that also contained some forty other unrelated amendments. The speech crimes provisions were not a focus of the debate, and it is likely that most members cast their votes for reasons unrelated to these provisions. The Managers Amendment adds an entirely new Exon-like provision to the existing federal obscenity laws. The provision would make it a crime to "intentionally communicate by computer ... to any person the communicator believes has not attained the age of 18 years, any material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs." (18 U.S.C. 1465) This provision, like the Exon amendment passed by the Senate, would effectively reduce all online content to that which is suitable only for children. It also raises the same questions about service provider liability that were raised by the Exon amendment. The Managers Amendment would also make it a crime to "receive" prohibited material "by computer," thereby subjecting both Internet users and service providers to new prosecutions (18 U.S.C. 1462). Assuming that the House telco bill is approved (which is highly probable by 3 pm today), both the House and Senate versions of the telco bill will include severe attacks on cyber-liberties. In approximately 2-4 hours, the House is scheduled to act on the Cox/Wyden amendment, which is expected to be approved. That amendment, however, was not designed to -- and does not -- affect the Exon-like speech crimes provisions added to the telco bill by the House minutes ago. The Cox/Wyden amendment would prohibit FCC regulation of Internet content. The ACLU will continue to work to resolve problems with the amendment. (See ACLU Online Analysis of Cox/Wyden.) The ACLU will continue to fight all aspects of the cyber-censorship battle, including the Exon-like speech crimes provisions just passed by the House, the Exon amendment in the Senate, the Dole/Grassley anti-computer pornography bill, the Grassley anti-electronic racketeering bill, and the Feinstein anti-explosives information amendment to the counter-terrorism bill. Be prepared to urge all members of Congress to urge their conferees to oppose all forms of cyber-censorship.