roundtable: Re: HR 1555 IS PRO-INTERNET!

roundtable: Re: HR 1555 IS PRO-INTERNET!

Re: HR 1555 IS PRO-INTERNET!

Miles R Fidelman (fidelman@civicnet.org)
Mon, 7 Aug 1995 15:28:01 +0059 (EDT) 

Date: Mon, 7 Aug 1995 15:28:01 +0059 (EDT)
From: Miles R Fidelman <fidelman@civicnet.org>
Subject: Re: HR 1555 IS PRO-INTERNET!
To: "Glenn S. Tenney" <tenney@netcom.com>
In-Reply-To: <v02120c04ac4852077c0f@[199.35.142.155]>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9508071526.B16175-0100000@world.std.com>


On Fri, 4 Aug 1995, Glenn S. Tenney wrote:
> 
> At 2:12 PM 8/3/95, ACC(BELL.COM)-Listserver wrote:
> >"(c) PROTECTION FOR 'GOOD SAMARITAN' BLOCKING AND SCREENING OF
> >OFFENSIVE MATERIAL.-- ...  No pro vider or user of interactive
> 
> Oh, this is great... not.   Let's say my ISP decides to monitor ALL
> incoming email to my account to "protect" me from email that might be lewd
> to them (not to me).  Not only would that be an invasion of my privacy and
> could keep private email from me that I want, but it would be a violation
> of the ECPA --- unless this law passes, then my ISP would no longer be
> liable.

Worse than that:  Let's say your ISP DOESN'T monitor traffic, and doesn't 
want to.  Under current law, the ISP can point to ECPA and 1st amendment 
protections and at least claim to be acting as a common carrier.  The new 
HR1555 language removes protections from ISPs who don't want to act as 
censors (just think about what happends when a state attorney general 
walks in and says "hey boy, I want to you stop allowing obscenity on your 
system or we'll haul you into court") -- i.e. the new language close to 
forces ISPs into acting as censors.

> Warning... bad law alert.

For damn sure.

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