The party rages on.
I Find Karma (adam@cs.caltech.edu)
Fri, 9 Feb 96 21:34:22 PST
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Two senators introduced a bill Friday
to repeal a new law that makes it a crime to make available to
minors ``indecent'' material on the Internet.
The Communications Decency Act, signed into law Thursday by
President Clinton as a part of a larger telecommunications bill,
metes out criminal fines of up to $250,000 and two years in
prison.
Civil libertarians, privacy activists and Internet
supporters are challenging the law in court, saying it is
unconstitutional and amounts to censorship.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) said he was introducing the bill
with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) ``because Americans shouldn't
have to wait for court action to have their First Amendment
rights protected.''
He added that while the new law is ``well intentioned,'' it
is ``improperly targeted at so-called 'indecent' speech on the
Internet which is protected by the First Amendment.''
Instead, he added, lawmakers should have targeted obscenity
or child pornography, the transmission of which is already a
violation of criminal law.
``While doing nothing to further protect children online,
the act compromises the right of every American to free
speech,'' said Sen. Feingold.
Feingold and Leahy opposed the provision, which won broad
support in the Senate and was later adopted by House and Senate
negotiators crafting the final telecommunications bill.