UPI 12/8/95 2:43 PM
By LINDA DAILEY PAULSON
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- In the first off-line protest organized
exclusively through cyberspace -- e-mail and Internet communications -- the
normally faceless online community on Monday plans to demonstrate against
pending legislation that would place limits on free speech in cyberspace.
The so-called "netizens," or citizens of the electronic community, fear
legislation endorsed Wednesday by House caucus of the conference committee on
telecommunications reform would censor free speech in cyberspace.
If the measures proposed by the House conferees or those spearheaded by Sen.
J. James Exon, D-Neb., are enacted, online media would become the most heavily
regulated media in the United States, they say.
The House conferees' vote Wednesday removed the best chance that a
telecommunications bill would not contain an Internet censorship provision, said
protest organizers.
The legislation's decency code would make a home page on the World Wide Web
meet standards similar to those imposed on Saturday morning cartoons --
standards much stricter than the First Amendment freedoms afforded to print
media.
Violators of the decency standard would be subjected to fines of up to
$100,000 and prison terms of up to five years.
"They would be adopting an indecency standard that would be very broadly
defined, that would preclude publishing a book like "Catcher in the Rye" online
or make indecent posting something similar to Michelangelo's nudes," said Todd
Lappin, one of the organizers of the protest and a section editor at Wired
magazine. "They are taking an entire medium and dumbing it down to the least
common denominator."
He said "filtering" software currently on the market enables parents to block
objectionable or inappropriate information from the Internet and that the
technology exists to create an online version of the "V chip," used to block
violent cable programs.
"There is no need for the government to be involved in this," Lappin said.
In response to the caucus vote, business owners and employees of firms that
provide multimedia, online, Internet and new media services, as well as allied
companies, are circulating information on Monday's event through the Internet.
They say the issue directly affects their livelihoods.
Nathan Shedroff, creative director and founder of vivid studios, a web design
firm located in San Francisco's Multimedia Gulch neighborhood, said his
company's 32 employees will be taking a vocal part in the protest. Shedroff's
workers also will document the event with audio and video clips on the company's
web site.
Shedroff said this free speech issue is crucial for the survival of many
small companies like his.
"These are people seeking to use fear to manipulate," he said of the proposed
legislation. "It's classic propaganda, classic censorship, completely
unenforceable. It's gone on way too long. We thought this issue would be dead by
now, but it doesn't seem to have died.
If passed, the bill could be the death knell for electronic publishing,
Lappin said. "All of us are in this together trying to create a media that
serves the public interest," he says. "They're going to kill this industry
before it has a chance to even get off the ground."
Shedroff agreed, saying, "Small businesses and entreprenuerism are driving
our economy," he says. "This could squash what's happening in the economy if
small businesses can't protect themselves. It is truly dangerous."
The American Civil Liberties Union said it would challenge the censorship
proposals in court.
"All of Congress' proposals violate the First Amendment and privacy rights
of adults to communicate freely in the online environment," said Barry
Steinhardt, ACLU associate director, in a statement issued shortly after the
committee vote was announced. "Congress is making it ever more clear that we
will have to turn to the courts to uphold free speech in the promising new
medium of cyberspace."
The ACLU said some of the groups that would join a suit if the bill passes
include online political columnists, distributors of gay and lesbian resources,
human rights groups, academic researchers of human sexuality, AIDS education
groups, prisoners' rights groups, and student groups with controversial web
pages. These groups fear prosecution because they use online services to post,
exchange, or distribute material that could be deemed "indecent" under the
proposed law.
"The people trying to propagate this are being sensationalistic," Shedroff
said. The problem is intensified because the vast majority of the public doesn't
understand the medium or the issues, he said.
The protest is scheduled for Monday at noon in San Francisco's South Park.
Mike Godwin, legal counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is among the
roster of scheduled speakers.
Copyright 1995 The United Press International
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