Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 21:06:22 -0400
From: crispen@INTERNIC.NET
Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Subject: TOURBUS TOP TEN -- 26 JUNE 1997 -- THE CDA
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/~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~|~\
| "Why | Surf When / You Can | Ride The | Bus?" / | \
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/ /______|----\
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\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
Happy birthday to us,
Happy birthday to us,
Happy birthday dear BU-US,
Happy birthday to us!
Hi, kids!
As Bob told you in his last post, our little bus of Internet happiness is
now two years old. To celebrate this wonderful occasion, Bob and I are
going to spend the next 365 days screaming "MINE!" at the top of our lungs.
Actually, to celebrate TOURBUS' second birthday, Bob and I had planned to,
over the next ten issues, run a "Best of TOURBUS" series. Fortunately,
thanks to a recent ruling by the United States Supreme Court, those plans
have changed a little.
Before we get to that Supreme Court ruling, however, I want to give a
special thanks to the kind folks who keep our two-year-old little bus of
Internet happiness ("MINE!") on the road:
+-------------------------[ DID YOU WIN? ]---------------------------+
Learning Online Ltd. invites you to DISCOVER what online learning
is all about! Prizes are waiting for five TOURBUS riders.
Check here to see if you won a free online course.
+-- http://www.learnskills.com/winners/ -OR- mrktg@learnskills.com --+
+--- AOL MEMBERS: You have Internet access. Now learn to use it. ---+
NetAnswers Internet Extra is a weekly newsletter that teaches
AOL members how to really use the Internet. $12 for 52 issues.
E-mail NetAnswers@aol.com for free issues & subscription info.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
And, now, on with the show ...
TOURBUS TOP TEN SITE #2 : The Communications Decency Act
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESSES :
http://news.com/SpecialFeatures/0,5,11953,00.html
http://www.aclu.org/court/renovacludec.html
Earlier today, by a vote of 7 to 2, the United States Supreme Court
declared the Communications Decency Act (CDA) to be unconstitutional. The
CDA had made it a federal crime to use the Internet to distribute "patently
offensive" materials to minors.
Signed into law in February of 1996, the Communications Decency Act
immediately received the scorn of large sections of the Internet community
for its vague and reportedly unconstitutional language. Within minutes of
the CDA being signed into law, a coalition of organizations including the
American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the
American Libraries Association filed a legal challenge to the CDA in US
Federal District Court.
4 months later, by a unanimous vote of 3-0, the United States Court of
Appeals ruled that the Communications Decency Act was unconstitutional.
According to Judge Sloviter, "[t]he CDA is patently a government-imposed
content-based restriction on speech, and the speech at issue, whether
denominated 'indecent' or 'patently offensive,' is entitled to
constitutional protection." The Court went on to say that, "the evidence
and our Findings of Fact based thereon show that Internet communication,
while unique, is more akin to telephone communication, at issue in Sable,
than to broadcasting, at issue in Pacifica, because, as with the telephone,
an Internet user must act affirmatively and deliberately to retrieve
specific information online."
On July 1st, 1996, United States Attorney General Janet Reno appealed this
decision to the Supreme Court. On March 19, 1997, the Supreme Court heard
oral arguments in the case
By a vote of 7-2, the United States Supreme Court agreed with the Court of
Appeals' decision that the CDA is unconstitutional. According to an
article that appeared on cnet's news.com,
The court supported the legislative goal of protecting children
from exposure to adult material. But the 40-page ruling found
that the exact provisions of the law also unconstitutionally
undermined the free-speech rights of adults and harshly refuted
the government's defense of the Net censorship law, which was
passed as part of last year's sweeping federal telecommunications
act.
The court ruled unanimously that the law's "patently offensive
display" provision violates the First Amendment. This provision
could have applied to speech posted on Web sites or in chat
rooms.
"Notwithstanding the legitimacy and importance of the
congressional goal of protecting children from harmful materials,
we agree with the three-judge District Court that the statute
abridges 'the freedom of speech' protected by the First
Amendment," the ruling stated.
It went on to say: "The CDA lacks the precision that the First
Amendment requires when a statute regulates the content of
speech."
[Quoted from "High court rejects CDA," by Courtney Macavinta and
Jeff Pelline, http://news.com/SpecialFeatures/0,5,11937,00.html]
As you might have expected, cnet's news.com site has extensive information
about the decision at
http://news.com/SpecialFeatures/0,5,11953,00.html
or just go to
http://news.com/
and click on "The Net" category on the left-hand side of the screen.
You can also find the complete text of the Supreme Court's decision online at
http://www.aclu.org/court/renovacludec.html
This document is pretty huge -- about 45 pages on paper, 119K on disk --
but I can assure you that this decision will be one of most discussed
Supreme Court decisions of our generation. You really owe it to yourself
to download this file and read it [I'm going to be giving a speech in
Conway, Arkansas, this weekend, and I plan to re-read the decision on the
plane].
That's it for this week. Tune in next week for a REAL "classic" TOURBUS
post as Bob and I celebrate the 2nd anniversary of TOURBUS! :)
TOURBUS TOP TEN SITE #2 : The Communications Decency Act
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESSES :
http://news.com/SpecialFeatures/0,5,11953,00.html
http://www.aclu.org/court/renovacludec.html
--------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------
VARMINT (noun) - one's surroundings.
Usage: "This is no kind of varmint to bring up a child in."
(Special thanks to Julie Peterson for today's word)
YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE SOUTHERN WORD
HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1ix.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html
=--------------------------------------------------------------------=
For info on my new book "Atlas for the Information Superhighway"
Visit http://ua1ix.ua.edu/~crispen/atlas.html
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=====================================================================
.~~~. ))
(\__/) .' ) )) Patrick Douglas Crispen
/o o \/ .~ The Internet Network Information Center
{o_, \ { Business E-mail: crispen@internic.net
/ , , ) \ Personal E-mail: crispen@brigadoon.com
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