News on Congressional Debate on Exon
I just heard (12:15 EST) that the House has adopted language similar to the original Exon-Coates language in the Senate (as opposed to the White language, which was less restrictive in that it dealt with material that was "harmful" to children, interpreted to mean child porn). It looks like Internet Service Providers will soon be held liable for "indecent material" passed by their systems. I would expect most ISPs will drop the alt.binaries.* newsgroups as a first step, and maybe other groups as well. (Controlling Web page accesses is a much tougher problem, of course. so I wouldn't expect much action on this at first.) By the way, I recently discovered a new twist on "age credentials": the use of credit cards to prove age. One image site is asking for a "valid credit card number" to be given...not to use for charges, but just to do a quick verification (they claim a few minutes or less) that the card is valid and in the name of the person accessing their site. Some obvious security issue. An interesting twist, though. If the Exon Bill really does go into effect, and age limits on access are imposed, I'll be looking for what we've always joked about: the "Information Superhighway Driver's License." --Tim May Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
On Wed, 6 Dec 1995, Timothy C. May wrote:
I just heard (12:15 EST) that the House has adopted language similar to the original Exon-Coates language in the Senate (as opposed to the White language, which was less restrictive in that it dealt with material that was "harmful" to children, interpreted to mean child porn).
It looks like Internet Service Providers will soon be held liable for "indecent material" passed by their systems. I would expect most ISPs will drop the alt.binaries.* newsgroups as a first step, and maybe other groups as well.
*Sigh*. Are we really ready to go back to UUCP? It looks like we'll have to. That is, if someone doesn't set up a couple cryptographically enhanced subnets first, or come up with some better idea. Interesting prospect, actually. Anyone wish to comment on the prospect of a double blind server, set outside U.S. borders, that can act as an interface to the rest of the world, perhaps encrypting or stego'ing the data transfered between it and the user? Basically, an anonymous remailer that acts as a cross between an NNTP, POP3, and SMTP servers.
If the Exon Bill really does go into effect, and age limits on access are imposed, I'll be looking for what we've always joked about: the "Information Superhighway Driver's License."
God help us all. -- Jason Burrell South Texas Communications
well, there goes the neighborhood. guess I better clean up my www front page which meets the Exon rules on indeceny, pisses on ITAR, and is probably seditious as well. might as well get a start on it before the eager beavers hemorrhage! the House contingent were all of the Exon persuasion to begin with and subject to threats by the Christian Right. The real test is whether the full House will sign on --a real test on Newt's professed 'Freedom of the Net' policy! If Newt keeps his resolve, can he again raise the 424-4 margin he had for the Wyden amendment? Tune in for the exciting fireworks next week or so for House action.... yeah, right! and as a last resort, Clinto has vowed to veto the bill for two reasons: the open season privileges for big business to consolidate all telecommonications into a few empires, and the lack of regulation to control same. Maybe now that Hillary is not out front, maybe Bill will find his balls, or maybe he will waffle again.... ------- On Wed, 6 Dec 1995, Timothy C. May wrote:
I just heard (12:15 EST) that the House has adopted language similar to the original Exon-Coates language in the Senate (as opposed to the White language, which was less restrictive in that it dealt with material that was "harmful" to children, interpreted to mean child porn).
It looks like Internet Service Providers will soon be held liable for "indecent material" passed by their systems. I would expect most ISPs will drop the alt.binaries.* newsgroups as a first step, and maybe other groups as well.
(Controlling Web page accesses is a much tougher problem, of course. so I wouldn't expect much action on this at first.)
By the way, I recently discovered a new twist on "age credentials": the use of credit cards to prove age. One image site is asking for a "valid credit card number" to be given...not to use for charges, but just to do a quick verification (they claim a few minutes or less) that the card is valid and in the name of the person accessing their site.
Some obvious security issue. An interesting twist, though.
If the Exon Bill really does go into effect, and age limits on access are imposed, I'll be looking for what we've always joked about: the "Information Superhighway Driver's License."
--Tim May
Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
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tcmay＠got.net