------------------------------------------------------------------------ CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE EXON/GORTON COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT Update: -Bill is on the Senate floor -Please act to help Leahy stop the Exon censorship bill PEITION TO HELP SENATOR LEAHY STOP THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT May 19, 1995 PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT REDISTRIBUTE ONLY UNTIL June 9, 1995 REPRODUCE THIS ALERT ONLY IN RELEVANT FORUMS Distributed by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (vtw@vtw.org) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS The Time Is Now Another Petition? What Is Sen. Leahy Proposing? How To Sign The Petition The Petition Statement Signing the petition from Fidonet or FTN systems For More Information List Of Participating Organizations ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE TIME IS NOW HELP SENATOR LEAHY STOP THE EXON COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT The Senate is expected to on vote the Communications Decency Act (CDA, a.k.a. the Exon Bill) within the next three weeks. The Communications Decency Act, in its current form, would severely restrict your rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression online, and represents a grave threat to the very nature and existence of the Internet as we know it today. Without your help now, the Communications Decency Act will likely pass and the net may never be the same again. Although the CDA has been revised to limit the liability of online service providers, it would still criminalize the transmission of any content deemed "obscene, lewd, lacivious, filthy, or indecent," including the private communications between consenting adults. Even worse, some conservative pro-censorship groups are working to amend the CDA to make it even more restrictive. Currently, Senator Exon is negotiating with pro-censorship groups and commercial entities that would be affected by the CDA. The voices of Internet users must be heard now. We need to demonstrate that we are a political force to be reckoned with. In an effort to preserve your rights in cyberspace, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has introduced the only legislative alternative to the Communications Decency Act. Senator Leahy is willing to offer his bill as a substitute for the CDA, but needs your support behind his efforts. Senator Leahy's legislation would commission a study to examine the complex issues involved in protecting children from controversial content while preserving the First Amendment, the privacy rights of users, and the free flow of information in cyberspace. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANOTHER PETITION? Yes. With a strong showing of support from the net.community, Senator Leahy can offer his bill as a substitute for the Communications Decency Act when the Senate votes on the issue later this month. Senator Leahy needs and wants to demonstrate to his colleagues in the Senate that the net.community is behind him in his efforts. We must rise to the task and demonstrate that we will not sit idly by as our rights are threatened. Senator Leahy, a strong civil liberties advocate, has been the Senate's most vocal critic of the Exon/Gorton Communications Decency Act, and has taken a leading role in defending the rights and civil liberties of Internet users. Senator Leahy has taken a great political risk in representing the interests of Internet users on Capitol Hill. The time has come for us to show our appreciation and our support for his efforts. The previous petition against the Communications Decency Act generated over 108,000 signatures, and was instrumental in Senator Leahy's decision to offer his alternative As the Senate moves to vote on the CDA, we must act quickly to ensure that our collective voice continues to be heard. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WHAT IS LEAHY PROPOSING? Senator Leahy's bill, S. 714, would direct the Department of Justice and the Department of Commerce to commence a 5 month study to examine: * Current law enforcement authority to prosecute the distribution of pornography over computer networks; * Whether any additional law or law enforcement resources are necessary; * The availability of technological capabilities, consistent with the First Amendment and the free flow of information in Cyberspace, to protect children from accessing controversial commercial and non- commercial content; * Ways to promote the development and deployment of such technologies. After conducting the study, the Justice Department must report to Congress on its findings, and, if necessary, recommend changes in current law. Leahy's bill represents the only substantive legislative alternative to the Communications Decency Act, and will buy important time to have a detailed and rational discussion about the issues involved in protecting children from controversial content, and avoid the rush to censorship which is occurring now on the Senate Floor. Without a strong show of support for Leahy's bill, the Communications Decency Act is very likely to pass. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WHAT CAN I DO? Please Sign the petition in support of Senator Leahy's alternative. There are two ways to sign: 1. World Wide Web: URL:http://www.cdt.org/petition.html Please follow all instructions carefully. Please also put a link to this page on your homepage. 2. email: send email to petition@cdt.org. Please provide the following information EXACTLY AS SHOWN. INCORRECT SUBMISSIONS CANNOT NOT BE COUNTED! Be sure that you make a carriage return at the end of each line Your Name Your email address Are you a US Citizen (yes or no) (** IF NO, skip to last line) Your Street Address (** USE ONLY ONE LINE) Your City Your State Your Zip Code (**VERY IMPORTANT) Country PRIVACY POLICY: Information collected during this campaign will not be used for any purpose other than delivering a list of signers to Congress and compiling counts of signers from particular states and Congressional districts. It will not be reused, sold, rented, loaned, or available for use for any other purpose. All records will be destroyed immediately upon completion of this project. --- sample email submission --- To: petition@cdt.org From: everybody@ubiquitous.net Subject: signed Every Body everybody@ubiqutious.net YES 1111 State Street, Apt. 31 B Any Town CA 94320 USA --- sample email submission --- Multiple signatures will not be counted, so please only sign once. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE PETITION STATEMENT We the undersigned users of the Internet are strongly opposed to the "Communications Decency Act" (Title IV of S. 652), which is currently pending before the Senate. This legislation will severely restrict our rights to freedom of speech and privacy guaranteed under the constitution. Based on our Nation's longstanding history of protecting freedom of speech, we believe that the Federal Government should have no role in regulating the content of constitutionally protected speech on the Internet. We urge the Senate to halt consideration of the Communications Decency Act and consider in its place S. 714, the "Child Protection, User Empowerment, and Free Expression In Interactive Media Study Bill", an alternative approach offered by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Signed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SIGNING THE PETITION FROM FIDONET OR FTN SYSTEMS To sign the petition from FidoNet or other FTN systems, create a netmail message to your local UUCP host. Search the nodelist for the GUUCP flag, and use the address of that system: To: UUCP, [GUUCP system's address here. "To:" name MUST be set to UUCP] From: [you] Subject: signed --------------------------------------------------------------- To: petition@cdt.org Every Body everybody@ubiqutious.net YES 1111 State Street, Apt. 31 B Any Town CA 94320 USA [Message starts on 3rd line. The second "To:" line with the internet email address MUST be the first line of the message body, and the blank line following that is REQUIRED. Mail will not be delivered by the gateways without it.] If you are unsure whether your FTN has an Internet gateway, or suspect it may use something other than a GUUCP nodelist flag, ask your network coordinators. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PETITION RATIONALE We oppose the "Communications Decency Act", sponsored by Senators James Exon (D-NE) and Slade Gorton (R-WA), for the following reasons: * It criminalizes the transmission of constitutionally protected speech, including the private communications between consenting individuals; * It would violate privacy rights by protecting system administrators who take steps to ensure that their networks are not being used to transmit prohibited content, even if those steps include reading all messages, in violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). * It fails to account for the unique characteristics of interactive media, including the tremendous control users have over the content they or their children receive. * It would give the Federal Communications Commission jurisdiction over online speech by giving the FCC authority to establish rules governing the distribution of content online; The Internet and other interactive communications technologies offer a unique opportunity for the free exchange of information and ideas, and embody the very essence of our nation's democratic traditions of openness, diversity and freedom of speech. As users of these technologies, we know perhaps better than anyone that there are other, less restrictive ways to protect children from controversial materials while preserving the First Amendment and the free flow of information. Senator Leahy's bill provides an opportunity to address the issues raised by the Communications Decency Act without restricting the free speech and privacy rights of users. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FOR MORE INFORMATION Petition updates will be posted to appropriate newsgroups and other forums on a regular basis. To have the latest status report sent to you automatically, send email to: p-update@cdt.org If you have specific questions, or if you are interested in mirroring the petition page, contact Jonah Seiger Other petition related information can be found on the CDT petition page. URL:http://www.cdt.org/petition.html For More information on the Communications Decency Act issue: Web Sites URL:http://www.cdt.org/cda.html URL:http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/ URL:http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon/ FTP Archives URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/policy/freespeech/00-INDEX.FREESPEECH URL:ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/Alerts/ Gopher Archives: URL:gopher://gopher.eff.org/11/Alerts URL:gopher://gopher.panix.com/11/vtw/exon Information By auto-reply email: If you don't have www/ftp/gopher access, you can get up-to-date information from the following autobots: General information on the CDA issue cda-info@cdt.org Current status of the CDA issue cda-stat@cdt.org Chronology of events of the CDA issue vtw@vtw.org with the subject "send events" ----------------------------------------------------------------------- LIST OF PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS In order to use the net more effectively, several organizations have joined forces on a single Congressional net campaign to stop the Communications Decency Act. In alphabetical order: Californians Against Censorship Together BobbyLilly@aol.com Center For Democracy And Technology (CDT) info@cdt.org Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) info@eff.org Feminists For Free Expression (FFE) FFE@aol.com Florida Coalition Against Censorship pipking@mail.firn.edu Hands Off! The Net baby-x@phanton.com National Libertarian Party 73163.3063@compuserve.com National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN) info@nptn.org National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981 AFL-CIO) kip@world.std.com Panix Public Access Internet info@panix.com People for the American Way jlessern@reach.com Society for Electronic Access sea@sea.org The WELL info@well.com Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) vtw@vtw.org If you would like to add your organization to this list, contact Shabbir Safdar at VTW ------------------------------------------------------------------------