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T A B L E__T A L K The return of the Communications Decency Act: What should be done? Join the discussion in Table Talk's Digital Culture area - - - - - - - - - - R E C E N T L Y Anatomy of an e-mail chain letter Six degrees to nowhere What the spell-checker knows The 21st Challenge No. 13 Results Salon hacked! - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE - - - - - - - - - -
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BY JANELLE BROWN | In December 1995, in the wee hours of the morning, I was on my knees with glue gun and cardboard, assembling makeshift placards for a demonstration at lunch time in San Francisco's South Park. It was the first time I'd even remotely considered grass-roots activism since my more idealistic college days; I was protesting the Communications Decency Act. As the neon-pink sign I hoisted read, "Uncle Sam Out Of My Homepage!" The Communications Decency Act sparked a furor among Internet users in late 1995 and 1996. The oppressive legislation, with its vaguely worded indecency standards, sparked a blue ribbon campaign, rallies and demonstrations, activism mailing lists, "turn the Web black" campaigns and a multitude of angry editorials. The numbers may have been comparatively small -- the demonstration I helped organize boasted barely 500 people -- but the issue was both noted and given air time by the mainstream media. The CDA was passed, signed, appealed and ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in June 1997. But Congress hasn't stopped the fight to block smut on the Net, and a number of Net porn and filtering-related bills are wending their way through Congress right now. One, the Oxley bill (often referred to as "CDA II" or "Son of CDA"), will probably be approved by the House's Commerce Committee on Thursday; its opponents fear that it could be law within three weeks. Congress learned its lessons from the Supreme Court, and the various bills aren't as wide in scope as the CDA. But they are still plenty restrictive, and have scared the usual suspects into action: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the ACLU, Peacefire and 25 other organizations have started a coalition called the Internet Free Expression Alliance, which is fighting the bills. But while the organizations have kicked into high gear, there's a surprising void of blue ribbons. There are no Web pages blackened in somber protest, and few pontificating free-speech activists. If these bills truly are the children of the CDA, where are the protests? N E X T_ P A G E .|. The laws -- protecting young people's eyes or strangling free speech? |