roundtable: ACLU Cyber-Liberties Alert: House Adopts Exon-Like Speech Crimes

roundtable: ACLU Cyber-Liberties Alert: House Adopts Exon-Like Speech Crimes

ACLU Cyber-Liberties Alert: House Adopts Exon-Like Speech Crimes

Ann Beeson (beeson@aclu.org)
Fri, 4 Aug 1995 09:36:12 -0400 

From: Ann Beeson <beeson@aclu.org>
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


Posted by
Ann Beeson
<beeson@aclu.org>


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.

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