roundtable: CDT POLICY POST No.5 -- INDECENCY BILL APPROVED BY SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE (fwd)(FWD:CITS)

roundtable: CDT POLICY POST No.5 -- INDECENCY BILL APPROVED BY SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE (fwd)[FWD:CITS]

CDT POLICY POST No.5 -- INDECENCY BILL APPROVED BY SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE (fwd)[FWD:CITS]

W. Curtiss Priest (BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu)
Fri, 24 Mar 95 11:21:29 EST 

Message-Id: <9503241644.AA01538@a.cni.org>
Date:  Fri, 24 Mar 95 11:21:29 EST
From: "W. Curtiss Priest" <BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu>
To: Telecommunications Policy Roundtable <ROUNDTABLE@CNI.ORG>
Subject: CDT POLICY POST No.5 -- INDECENCY BILL APPROVED BY SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE (fwd)[FWD:CITS]

FYI -- Curt


Curtiss Priest
<bmslib@mitvma.mit.edu>

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Date:   Thu, 23 Mar 1995 13:32:19 -0600 (CST)
From: Gleason Sackman <sackman@plains.nodak.edu>
To: CoSN Discussion List <cosndisc@list.cren.net>
Subject: CDT POLICY POST No.5 -- INDECENCY BILL APPROVED BY SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE (fwd)[FWD:CITS]


FYI:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 13:26:42 -0500
From: Jonah Seiger <jseiger@cdt.org>
To: comp-org-eff-talk@cs.utexas.edu
Cc: alt-politics-datahighway@cs.utexas.edu, com-priv@psi.com,
    telecomreg@relay.adp.wisc.edu
Subject: CDT POLICY POST No.5 -- INDECENCY BILL APPROVED BY SENATE COMMERCE
 COMMITTEE

------------------------------------------------------------------------
   ******    ********    *************
  ********   *********   *************
  **         **      **       ***               POLICY POST
  **         **      **       ***
  **         **      **       ***               March 23, 1995
  **         **      **       ***               Number 5
  ********   *********        ***
   ******    ********         ***

  CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------------------
  A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CDT POLICY POST 3/23/95                                      Number 5

CONTENTS: (1) Exon Indecency Bill Approved by Sen. Commerce Committee
          (3) About the Center For Democracy and Technology

This document may be re-distributed freely providing it remains in its
entirety.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

EXON INDECENCY BILL APPROVED BY SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE

The Senate Commerce Committee voted unanimously today to adopt S. 314,
Senator Exon's "Communications Decency Act", as an amendment to the
Senate telecommunications reform legislation. The amendment was
introduced by Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) on behalf of himself an Exon (D-
NE). It received no significant debate and was unanimously approved on a
voice vote.

The bill was amended from its original form to limit liability for
telecommunications carriers and online service providers, but users  and
content providers would still be criminally liable for any communications
that are deemed "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent".   An analysis
of these provisions by CDT, as well as the full text of the bill will be posted
later today.

On initial analysis, CDT still believes that the bill is an unconstitutional
violation of the free speech and privacy rights of network users and content
providers.

Although the Commerce Committee did vote to send the
Telecommunications reform legislation to the Senate floor, there are still
serious disputes about the entire package. Because of this, there are still
many
opportunities to remove the "Indecency Provision" as the bill moves to the
floor.

Stay tuned for further analysis and additional information from CDT.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY

The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest
organization. The Center's mission is to develop and advocate public
policies that advance constitutional civil liberties and democratic
values in new computer and communications technologies.

Contacting us:

General information on CDT can be obtained by sending mail to
<info@cdt.org>

www/ftp/gopher archives are currently under construction, and should be
up and running by the end of March.

                                 ###

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