Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 11:44:10 -0400 From: shabbir@vtw.org (Shabbir J. Safdar) To: Multiple recipients of list <com-priv@lists.psi.com> Subject: ALERT: Court decision expected soon in free speech case; spread the word! - ------ [Dear Friend-of-VTW, During our "Turn the Web Black campaign", you wrote us regarding that protest. Because of the success of that campaign, we are asking you to participate again in another net-campaign to draw attention to the upcoming decision in the lawsuit to challenge the net censorship legislation. This information is not widely available yet, and I would appreciate it if you did not redistribute this. Because you helped us out during the highly successful "Turn the Web Black" campaign, we are giving you advanced notice of this effort before we tell anyone else. -Shabbir J. Safdar, Voters Telecommunication Watch (www.vtw.org)] ======================================================================== __ _________ __ __ ____ ____ _____ \ \ / /_ _\ \ / / / / / ___| _ \_ _| Raise the roof \ \ / / | | \ \ /\ / / / / | | | | | || | for the Court's \ V / | | \ V V / / / | |___| |_| || | decision on net \_/ |_| \_/\_/ /_/ \____|____/ |_| free speech! Voters Telecommunications Watch / Center for Democracy and Technology JOIN TENS OF THOUSANDS OF NET USERS IN SPREADING THE WORD ABOUT THE FIRST RESULT OF THE FREE SPEECH LAWSUIT June 5, 1996 Redistribute (intact, please) only until June 28, 1996 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Table of contents News - A decision in the court case is near How to participate How will this campaign work? Press information on this event Background: what is the CDA? - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEWS - A DECISION IN THE COURT CASE IS NEAR The fate of the Internet and the future of the First Amendment in the information age hang in the balance. As early as this week, three federal judges in Philadelphia are poised to issue a ruling in the law suit challenging the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which restricts constitutionally protected speech on the Internet. Will the court rule that the CDA is unconstitutional? That the Internet is a unique communications technology that deserves the same First Amendment protections enjoyed by the print media? Or will the court side with Senator Exon, conservative "pro-family" groups, and the Justice Department who have argued that the government is the best judge of what material is appropriate online. Regardless of the outcome, the decision will have a profound impact on the future of the Internet as a medium for free expression, education, and commerce. JOIN TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YOUR FELLOW NETIZENS IN ANNOUNCING THE DECISION When the Communications Decency Act was signed into law by President Clinton on February 8, 1996, the World Wide Web went black in protest. When the decision in the historic legal challenge to the CDA is announced, join tens of thousands of your fellow netizens in spreading the word on the decision and its impact. This campaign follows in the steps of the Turn the Web Black campaign, which was a tremendous success. Believe it or not, many Internet users had only superficial knowledge about the proposed law and the enormous press coverage and online awareness afterwards mobilized large numbers of people. In addition to the online campaign, there are currently rallies planned for New York, press conferences from the CIEC and the ACLU, and a net campaign to raise awareness to the decision and the effects it will have on free speech. The result of the first CDA decision is an extremely important milestone in the fight for free speech online. Will the net look more like print, or more like Saturday morning television? - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO PARTICIPATE: In anticipation of the decision, you can help keep your fellow Netizens informed on the latest news and participate in a dramatic demonstration when the decision is announced. 1. Add the following link *TODAY* in a prominent location on your web site: <a href="http://www.vtw.org/speech/"> <img src="http://www.vtw.org/images/cda.gif" alt="Free speech court decision" align=top></a><br clear = all><br> A decision is near in the fight to overturn the Communications Decency Act. <br>Watch this image and follow the link for more information. 2. To let us know you have joined us, fill out the form at http://www.vtw.org/speech/ with your URL. A list of participating will be displayed. 3. Attend the online press conference with lead CIEC (Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition) attorney Bruce Ennis on HotWired. More details are available on the WWW page. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HOW WILL THIS CAMPAIGN WORK? After you have added the link (above) to your page, an animated image signifying that a decision in the case is expected soon will be displayed on your site. By clicking on that image, visitors to your page can jump to a site containing the latest news and information on the case. As soon as a decision is announced, the image will be changed automatically (the update will happen at our server - you will not have to do anything), and Netizens throughout the entire global Internet will immediately be aware of the result (win or lose). By clicking on the updated image, visitors to your page will be able to obtain the text of the decision, analysis, and other relevant information. Until the decision is announced, there will be information about upcoming events and rallies on the VTW Free Speech page, http://www.vtw.org/speech/ - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PRESS INFORMATION ON THIS EVENT For more information on this event, including press inquiries, please contact: Jonah Seiger, Policy Analyst, Center For Democracy and Technology (CDT) <jseiger@cdt.org> +1.202.637.9800 Shabbir Safdar, Online Representative, Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) <shabbir@vtw.org> +1.718.596.2851 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BACKGROUND: WHAT IS THE CDA? The Communications Decency Act was passed as part of the Telecommunications Reform bill in February 1996. The law seeks to protect minors from objectionable or sexually explicit material on the Internet by imposing stiff criminal penalties on the "display" of "indecent" or "patently offensive" material online. Opponents to the new law argue that while well intentioned, the CDA fails to account for the unique nature of the Internet, and that it will have a far-reaching chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech online. On a global, decentralized communications medium like the Internet, the only effective and constitutional means of controlling access to objectionable material is to rely on users and parents, not the government, to decide what material is or is not appropriate. Two lawsuits have been filed to challenge the constitutionality of the CDA in a Philadelphia federal court. The cases have been consolidated and an decision is expected in early June 1996. The cases have been brought, respectively, by The Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition (CIEC), comprised of civil Liberties groups, libraries, Internet Service Providers, Commercial Online Service Providers, Newspaper, Magazine and Book Publishers, and over 45,000 individual internet users, and a coalition of civil liberties groups, authors, and others organized by the ACLU. Detailed information on the legal challenges, as well as information about the CDA, is available at the following web sites: Legal Challenges To The CDA - ---------------------------- * The ACLU - http://www.aclu.org/ * The Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition (CIEC) - http://www.cdt.org/ciec Background Information On The CDA/Internet Censorship Issues - ------------------------------------------------------------ * The ACLU - http://www.aclu.org * Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) - http://www.cdt.org * Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - http://www.eff.org * Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) - http://www.epic.org * Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) - http://www.vtw.org ======================================================================== ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "If they could 'just pass a few more laws', we would all be criminals." --Vinnie Moscaritolo The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/