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BillWatch #12
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Date: Wed, 09 Aug 1995 21:14:25 -0400
From: "Shabbir J. Safdar"
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VTW BillWatch: A weekly newsletter tracking US Federal legislation affecting civil liberties. BillWatch is published every Friday afternoon as long as Congress is in session.
Issue #12, Date: Sat Aug 5 03:01:07 EDT 1995
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Distributed by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (vtw@vtw.org)
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For permission to reproduce VTW alerts in your own publication contact vtw@vtw.org
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CONTENTS What happened in the last 48 hours? Rumor Central (RC) Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act (HR 1978, S n.a.) (passed in the House, nothing in Senate) 1995 Communications Decency Act (HR 1004, S 314) (passed Senate, a last-minute version passed in the House) 1995 Protection of Children from Computer Pornography Act (HR n.a., S 892, Senate hearing scheduled for July 24th) Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995 (HR n.a., S 974, not currently moving in the Senate)
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WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LAST 48 HOURS?
On Monday we released an alert asking the net to call their Representatives about supporting parental control as the best method of monitoring children's access to material on the Internet. You responded in spades. We're still digging out of the email, and Steven Cherry (VTW - stc@vtw.org) has been covering most of the mail reply tasks.
Fast forward to Friday (8/4) when the House voted on the Telecommunications Reform bill. The Cox/Wyden Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act (HR1978) was brought up as a proposed amendment to the Telecomm Reform bill. HR1978 advocates a "parental control" approach to the issue of children accessing the Internet. It was passed 420-4.
On the same day we saw another amendment proposed that would restrict constitutionally-protected expression online. It also was passed, and now goes onto conference with the House-endorsed HR1978 and the Senate-endorsed net-censorship bill (the Exon/Coats Communications Decency Act). What is most disturbing about these new net-censorship amendments is that they were intentionally obscured from any careful examination.
HR1978 had been available and well-discussed for weeks before this vote was proposed. In addition, a free demonstration of the "parental control" software discussed in HR1978 was done in mid-July for Congress by members of the Interactive Working Group. As is obvious, every effort was made by sponsors Cox and Wyden to ensure that supporting votes were well-educated votes on this issue.
On the other hand, the sponsors of the new net-censorship amendment brought it out at the last-minute. Neither civil liberties groups or even undecided legislators had enough time to examine it, much less poll their constituents about their feelings on it. Furthermore the summary of the legislation did NOT EVEN MENTION the fact that it would create new restrictions on speech.
When Steven Cherry (VTW) phoned his Representative's office on Friday to express his displeasure with the new net censorship amendment, a staffer blindly insisted that it wouldn't be voted on, because it wasn't in the summary. It is clear that this Representative isn't the only one who unknowingly cast a vote in favor of censorship today. VTW finds these tactics reprehensible but predictable.
Starting in September, the House/Senate conference committee will have to decide what parts of the passed legislation are resolved into the final bill. VTW is optimistic about our odds in this process.
But what really happened in the larger context of net censorship?
Tremendous gains were made today. 420 Reps went on record saying they had thought about the issue and supported a method of monitoring children's acces to the net without endangering free speech. Many of them did so because you called them and told them that's what you wanted.
In going through the letters you sent to vtw@vtw.org, we saw several cases like this:
Caller #1: I called Rep. Snodgrass about parental control being a better approach to children on the net (such as HR1978), and opposed net censorship. This was the first they've heard of it. Callers #2-5: I called Rep. Snodgrass about HR1978 and parental control and Snodgrass currently has no position. Caller #6: I called Rep. Snodgrass, and a staffer told me Snodgrass will vote for HR1978!
YOU HAD AN EFFECT on this process. Just one month ago we had lost this same battle in the Senate (84-16). The best the pro-censorship forces were able to do this time was to sneak in something less than the Communications Decency Act during the last second of the process, hoping that by hiding their legislation they could accomplish their goals. Although it would have been nice to have won this round conveniently and neatly, we have to take our victories as they come to us. In this case, with the help of Reps Cox and Wyden, we were able to tell our legislators that they could do something about the issue of "cyberporn" while preserving the First Amendment.
Every one of you that called, wrote, faxed, or drove to DC to speak to your rep should be very proud of yourself. You have made an impact and affected the way that politicians think about this issue. You've also created a record for them about how they've voted on this issue. Democracy does behave as designed sometimes, and we hope your enthusiasm about this motivates you to vote in the next election.
VTW will keep you informed about the progress of the conference committee where possible throughout September.
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RUMOR CENTRAL (RC)
[Big news this week on the net censorship issue, see the other sections for details. -Shabbir]
Quote of the week
"I'm real green at internet. I have no idea where this is going, but I wanted to say thanks, because I had a chance to participate in this vote on restricting Internet. I called my Rep. Nadler and told him how I felt and was glad to be told that he felt the same way and voted against the Exon/Coats CDA."
-Submitted by a new net user turned beginning activist
A big VTW kudos to Tim Mattox (tmattox@ecn.purdue.edu) who let us know of a problem in BillWatch last week. We had some problems with the mailer daemon that sent back the hearings file.
Send your interesting rumors (anonymously or not) to vtw@vtw.org. All mail headers will be destroyed.
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Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act (HR 1978, S n.a.)
Description: HR 1978 is an attempt to recognize the unique medium that is online systems and avoid legislating censorship. It would: -prohibit the FCC from regulating constitutionally-protected online speech -absolve sysops and services from liability if they take good faith measures to screen their content or provide parental-screening software
See directions below for obtaining analyses from various organizations.
House sponsors: Cox (R-CA), Wyden (D-OR)
House status: HR 1978 was passed today (8/4/95) by the House in a vote (420-4). It will continue to be refined during the conference process.
House actions anticipated: Representatives Cox and Wyden will track their bill through the House/Senate conference committee. Where to get more info: Email: vtw@vtw.org (with "send hr1978" in the subject line) Gopher: gopher -p 1/vtw/exon gopher.panix.com WWW: http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon
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1995 COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT (CDA) (Passed Senate, HR 1004)
Description: The CDA would criminalize electronic speech currently protected in print by the First Amendment.
House CDA sponsors: Johnson (D-SD)
House status: Although HR1004 will probably never leave committee, legislation that would censor the net in a similar manner was introduced into the Telecomm bill at the last minute. It will now go into conference for examination by the House/Senate conference committee.
Senate status: The Senate affirmed the Communications Decency Act (84-16) as amended to the Telecommunications Reform bill (S 652).
Where to get more info: WWW: http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon http://www.eff.org/ http://www.cdt.org/ http://epic.org/free_speech Gopher: gopher -p 1/vtw/exon gopher.panix.com gopher gopher.eff.org Email: vtw@vtw.org (with "send cdafaq" in the subject line) cda-status@cdt.org cda-info@cdt.org
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1995 Protection of Children from Computer Pornography Act (S 892)
Description: Would make Internet Service Providers liable for shielding people under 18 from all indecent content on the Internet. Senate sponsors: Dole (R-KS), Coats (R-IN), Grassley (R-IA), McConnell (R-KY), Shelby (R-AL), Nickles (R-OK), Hatch (R-UT)
Senate status: A hearing was held Monday July 24th. No action on the bill has happened yet as a result of that hearing.
Senate citizen action required: Request bill and analysis below and familiarize yourself with it.
House of Representatives status: No House version is known about, although similar language was attached at the last minute to the Telecomm Reform bill.
Where to get more info: Email: vtw@vtw.org (with "send s892" in the subject line) WWW: URL:http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon Gopher: URL:gopher://gopher.panix.com:70/11/vtw/exon
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Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995 (HR n.a., S 974)
Description: S 974 has many effects (not good) on law enforcement's use of intercepted communications. It would also make it unlawful for any person to publicly disseminate encoding or encrypting software including software currently allowed to be exported unless it contained a "universal decoding device". This more than likely means that Clipper-style key escrow systems could be disseminated, but not strong, private cryptography.
Senate sponsors: Grassley (R-IA)
Senate status: Currently not active and probably won't move before the August recess.
Senate citizen action required: Request bill below and familiarize yourself with it. VTW is tracking this bill, and will alert you when there is movement. There is no Congressional action to take right now; as other bills (such as the Communications Decency Act) pose a greater, more immediate threat.
House of Representatives status: No House version is currently enrolled.
Where to get more info: Email: vtw@vtw.org (with "send s974" in the subject line) Gopher: URL:gopher://gopher.panix.com:70/11/vtw/
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End VTW BillWatch Issue #12, Date: Sat Aug 5 03:01:07 EDT 1995
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