On Mon, 8 Jan 1996, Harry Bartholomew wrote:
http://www.cdt.org/policy/freespeech/12_21.cda.html
This title may be cited as the "Communications Decency Act of 1995".
Perhaps some of our more lawyerly types can decipher whether it is getting better or worse as the conference committee chews. Not I.
I'm not a lawyer, but from what I've read from the WWW site above, it seems that only providing "indecent" materials to minors is prohibited. I think this is already illegal. Broadcasting or sending unsolicited "indecent" materials is also prohibited, but that seems to have always been the case (except that objectionable materials have been called "obscence" rather than "indecent"). There are provisions, as I read it, that protect electronic intermediaries from the acts of the actual publishers of the materials (i.e. an ISP is not responsible for the material of other internet sites not under their control). It sounds to me like the only real task posed is to authenticate those accessing questionable materials as being >= 18 years old. Hmmmm. Don't authentication & crypto go hand-in-hand? Anyway, being rather foolish I suppose, I don't exactly see what the big deal is - am I missing something??? _____________________________________________________________________ Don Gaffney Engineering, Mathematics & Business Administration Computer Facility University of Vermont 237 Votey Building Burlington, VT 05405 (802) 656-8490 Fax: (802) 656-8802