----------------------------------------------- NEWS FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS LIBERTARIAN ASSOCIATION ----------------------------------------------- For Immediate Release For Additional Information John Brickner Electronic Outreach Director Massachusetts Libertarian Association LibertyWMA@aol.com ---------------------------------------------------- Phillies Endorses Electronic Freedom George Phillies, Libertarian Party candidate for the U. S. Senate in Massachusetts, today condemned the so-called Communications Decency Act -- the Internet Censorship Act --and called for its immediate repeal. Phillies, a resident of Worcester, will face incumbent Senator John Kerry and Governor William Weld in the fall election. He further called for elimination of controls that are strangling our computer export industry. Phillies explained his stand on Electronic Freedoms: 'There is no freedom more fundamental than freedom of speech, and electronic speech is speech. When Congress passes a law against undefined 'indecent' speech, it threatens all speech. When Congress extended the Comstock Law to electronic media, it forbade discussion of abortion by pro-life as well as pro-choice supporters. Of course, the Clinton Justice Department says it won't enforce the Comstock Act. But what will happen in 1997 if the Buchanan Justice Department replaces the Clinton Justice Department? Export restrictions on software are hurting the computer industry. Let us have a reality check here. PGP and other strong encryption algorithms are freely available in Europa, Asia, and Africa. The only companies being hurt by export restrictions on software are American companies. The only people being hurt by export restrictions are American programmers and manufacturers. Export restrictions on encryption and other software are hurting us, while stopping no one from encrypting their data. The Libertarian Party supports free trade in computer software, and so do I! Export restrictions on computer hardware are even worse, because those restrictions are a de facto subsidy from the U.S. government to foreign hardware producers. When a foreign producer can manufacture a high power computer, and an American producer cannot export one to compete in the free market, it is the foreign producer who profits, and American designers, workers, and shareholders who takes it in the chin. We have enough challenges from foreign competition now; we don't need our American government helping our foreign competitors. I have long supported electronic speech and publication as Constitutionally protected forms of speech and press. When the Secret Service raided Steve Jackson Games to suppress publication of 'Hacker' I immediately wrote Congress to protest. I argued 200 hundred years ago, King George's Hessian mercenaries raided colonial printers to scattered their typecases; now, Federal agents destroyed electronic font files. The physical format of the type was different, but the act was the same. 30 years ago, Russian police raided homes of Russian dissidents, destroying hand-typed samizdat; now, Federal agents destroyed magnetically-stored manuscripts of a game. The physical format of the manuscript was the different, but the act was the same. In the end, of course, word went out across the Net -- Justice was served. Steve Jackson had won his lawsuit. 'Finally, I remind all computer users, programmers, and designers: Liberty is indivisible! By standing together to protect all Constitutional Rights, not just the ones closest and dearest to our hearts, we make every Right safer. We all need to support the whole Bill of Rights, not just the parts that liberals or Republicans find convenient. Support the whole Bill of Rights. Support Your Electronic Freedom. Register and vote Libertarian. --------------------------30---------------- Background information The Libertarian Party is one of Massachusetts' three legally-recognized major political parties. Libertarians stand in the dynamic center of the political spectrum: conservative on fiscal issues, pro-freedom on social issues. To place candidates before the voters, Libertarians must satisfy precisely the same laws that will allow Democrats and Republicans to put Kerry and Weld on the ballot. In 1994, a Libertarian running for statewide office in Massachusetts received over 3% of the vote, more than the difference between Kerry and Weld in a recent poll. ------------------------------------------ For Additional Information: Contact the Candidate Himself: George Phillies Massachusetts Libertarian Association 87-6 Park Avenue Worcester MA 01605 508-831-5334 (w) (Yes, he has a real job.) 508-754-1859 (h) phillies@wpi.edu --------------------30--------------------------- Candidate Biographical Data George Phillies was born July 23, 1947 in Buffalo, New York, first son of Eustace G. Phillies, M.D.(deceased) and Clara Phillies. Phillies grew up in Kenmore and Williamsville, New York, finished as salutatorian at the Williamsville Central High School [now Williamsville North], and came to M.I.T. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While at MIT, Phillies earned degrees of Bachelor of Science in physics and in life sciences, as well as Master of Science and (in 1973) Doctor of Science degrees in physics. Phillies then joined the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program as a researcher. In 1971, Phillies joined the United States Army Reserves, eventually rising to the rank of Specialist, 5th Class, in a Boston unit, the 338th Medical Detachment; he received an honorable discharge in 1977. In 1975, Phillies moved to California, working as a postdoctoral fellow in the U.C.L.A. Chemistry department and living in Santa Monica. Phillies in 1978 moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was employed as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. In 1985, after declining alternatives at nationally-known schools, Phillies moved to the prestigious Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he rose to the rank of Professor in the Department of Physics. Phillies is recognized internationally for his scientific studies of light scattering, soaps, and polymer solutions. Phillies, 48, never married, rents a townhouse in Worcester, Massachusetts, a block from the WPI Campus. In 1994, the Libertarian Party gained major-party status in Massachusetts. Phillies has participated actively in Libertarian Party organizing efforts in Central and Western Massachusetts. In 1996, he was elected Executive Director of the Massachusetts Libertarian Association. The Bill of Rights: "I support the whole Bill of Rights, not just the convenient parts. I support the freedom of unpopular speech, the freedom to practice uncommon religions, freedom for consenting adults in the privacy of their homes, freedom of privacy via exportable strong encryption." ------------------------------------------------