---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 1 Aug 1995 17:43:34 -0400 From:editor@cdt.org To: policy-posts@cdt.org Subject: ALERT: House to Vote This Week on Net-Censorship Bills HOUSE TO VOTE THIS WEEK ----------------------- The House of Representatives will vote late Thursday or Early Friday (Aug 3 or 4) on whether to add the Cox/Wyden Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act as an amendment to the House Telecommunications Reform Bill (HR 1555). The Cox/Wyden amendment is a direct attack on the Exon/Coats Communications Decency Act (CDA). House passage of the Cox/Wyden amendment is the last chance we have to defeat the Exon/Coats CDA. If the House fails to pass Cox/Wyden, the Exon bill will likely become law. We must act now to head off this possibility. Please take a moment to contact your member of Congress and urge them to support the Cox/Wyden legislation (described in the alert below). The attached alert is from a coalition organized by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) which includes CDT, EFF, EPIC, and other online advocacy organizations. This may be your last chance to make your voice heard on this critical issue, so please call before Friday August 4. ======================================================================== CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE EXON/COATS COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT (SEE THE LIST OF CAMPAIGN COALITION MEMBERS AT THE END) Update: -Latest News: House vows to vote on Telecomm bill (which includes the CDA) this week before recess! -What You Can Do Now *** THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. *** *** THE HOUSE WILL VOTE ON THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY *** *** ACT THIS WEEK. IF WE LOSE, IT WILL BECOME LAW. *** CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT July 30, 1995 PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT REDISTRIBUTE ONLY UNTIL August 14, 1995 REPRODUCE THIS ALERT ONLY IN RELEVANT FORUMS Distributed by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (vtw@vtw.org) ________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS The Latest News What You Can Do Now What is Cox/Wyden? (HR1978) Chronology of the CDA For More Information List Of Participating Organizations List of the House of Representatives ________________________________________________________________________ THE LATEST NEWS This week the House of Representatives will choose between ANTI-FREE-MARKET PRO-CENSORSHIP LEGISLATION (the Exon/Coats Communications Decency Act) and ANTI-CENSORSHIP PRO-PARENTAL-CONTROL LEGISLATION (the Cox/Wyden Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act - HR1978). THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE AS A CITIZEN TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF WE LOSE THIS VOTE, THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT, ALREADY PASSED BY THE SENATE, WILL BECOME US LAW. The vision of a cyberspace ONLY FIT FOR CHILDREN will become reality. The Communications Decency Act will be offered by supporters of conservative pro-censorship groups THIS WEEK. They will try and amend HR1555 to include the Communications Decency Act and remove any other net-friendly language such as the Leahy/Klink study. ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW 1. THERE'S NO TIME FOR EMAIL OR SNAIL MAIL. CALL OR FAX YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW. 2. Find your rep (instructions below) and urge them to oppose the Communications Decency Act and support parental control legislation (the Cox/Wyden "Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act" HR1978) Figure out who your Rep is; feel free to use the following sample. ** See Instructions Below On How To Obtain Your Rep's Phone and Fax Number ** SAMPLE PHONE CALL (Y=You, S=Rep's Staffer) <ring ring> S:Rep. Snark's office, may I help you? Y:Hi, As your constituent I'd like to urge Rep Snark to oppose Internet censorship legislation such as the Exon/Coats Communications Decency Act and support parental control bills such as the Cox/Wyden Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act - HR1978. S:Anything else? Y:Yes, where does Rep. Snark stand on this issue? S:Rep. Snark supports HR1978. Y:Thank you! Take the response you get and mail it to vtw@vtw.org. We'll be totalling up the responses and counting votes. Send it to us with the subject line of "house call". $ Mail vtw@vtw.org Subject: house call I live in Ohio and I called Rep Snark. Snark's staffer said he favors HR1978 too! . Mail sent... $ SAMPLE FAX Dear Representative Snark, As your constituent I'd like to urge Rep Snark to oppose Internet censorship legislation such as the Exon/Coats Communications Decency Act and support parental control bills such as the Cox/Wyden Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act - HR1978. Sincerely, <your address> 3. Ask your Internet Service Provider or Sysop to put the following message into their "message of the day". We also encourage you to forward the following short announcement to relevant mailing lists where a copy of this alert would be too long for the list. 8/1/95: The Communications Decency Act (CDA) will be voted on by the House of Representatives this week. IT IS CRUCIAL THAT YOU CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW. To get a copy of the alert, send mail to vtw@vtw.org with "send alert" in the subject line, gopher -p 1/vtw/exon/alert gopher.panix.com, or URL:gopher://gopher.panix.com:70/00/vtw/exon/alert 4. Forward a copy of this alert to your friends until the "freshness date" above. THIS IS CRUCIAL. WE NEED TO GENERATE CALLS OF SUPPORT OR THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT WILL BECOME LAW. 5. Congratulate yourself! You've done your part to save cyberspace. ________________________________________________________________________ HOW TO FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE'S PHONE AND FAX NUMBER: 1. If you don't remember your representative's phone number, send email to reps@cdt.org You will automatically receive a list of all 435 members of the House of Representatives with phone and fax numbers. 2. OR, call the Capitol Switchboard (+1.202.225.3121) and ask to be connected to your Rep's office. If you don't remember who your Rep. is, the operator can tell you when provided with your zipcode. ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT IS COX/WYDEN? Cox/Wyden (HR1978) is legislation intended to prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from imposing content regulations on cyberspace and encourage private sector development and deployment of parental control technologies. Throughout HR1978's history, civil liberties advocates from ACLU, CDT, EPIC & PFAW have examined the bill and recommended modifications to ensure that the bill does not negatively impact your privacy or civil liberties. Although several questions still remain, Representatives Cox and Wyden are committed to addressing these concerns. As the legislation moves to the House/Senate conference committee, civil liberties advocates will continue to submit changes to the Representatives' staffers throughout the conference process where the House bill and the Senate-approved Communications Decency Act are reconciled. ________________________________________________________________________ CHRONOLOGY OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT House vote to occur before Friday August 4, 1995. Jun 30, '95 Cox and Wyden introduce the "Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act" (HR 1978) as an alternative to the CDA. Jun 21, '95 Several prominent House members publicly announce their opposition to the CDA, including Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Rep. Chris Cox (R-CA), and Rep. Ron Wyden (D-OR). Jun 14, '95 The Senate passes the CDA as attached to the Telecomm reform bill (S 652) by a vote of 84-16. The Leahy bill (S 714) is not passed. May 24, '95 The House Telecomm Reform bill (HR 1555) leaves committee in the House with the Leahy alternative attached to it, thanks to Rep. Ron Klink of (D-PA). The Communications Decency Act is not attached to it. Apr 7, '95 Sen. Leahy (D-VT) introduces S.714, an alternative to the Exon/Gorton bill, which commissions the Dept. of Justice to study the problem to see if additional legislation (such as the CDA) is necessary. Mar 23, '95 S314 amended and attached to the telecommunications reform bill by Sen. Gorton (R-WA). Language provides some provider protection, but continues to infringe upon email privacy and free speech. Feb 21, '95 HR1004 referred to the House Commerce and Judiciary committees Feb 21, '95 HR1004 introduced by Rep. Johnson (D-SD) Feb 1, '95 S314 referred to the Senate Commerce committee Feb 1, '95 S314 introduced by Sen. Exon (D-NE) and Gorton (R-WA). ________________________________________________________________________ FOR MORE INFORMATION Web Sites URL:http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon/ URL:http://epic.org/ URL:http://www.eff.org/pub/Alerts/ URL:http://www.cdt.org/cda.html URL:http://outpost.callnet.com/outpost.html FTP Archives URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/policy/freespeech/00-INDEX.FREESPEECH URL:ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/Alerts/ Gopher Archives: URL:gopher://gopher.panix.com/11/vtw/exon URL:gopher://gopher.eff.org/11/Alerts Email: vtw@vtw.org (put "send alert" in the subject line for the latest alert, or "send cdafaq" for the CDA FAQ) cda-info@cdt.org (General CDA information) cda-stat@cdt.org (Current status of the CDA) ________________________________________________________________________ LIST OF PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS In order to use the net more effectively, several organizations have joined forces on a single Congressional net campaign to stop the Communications Decency Act. American Communication Association * American Council for the Arts * Arts & Technology Society * Association of Alternative Newsweeklies * biancaTroll productions * Californians Against Censorship Together * Center For Democracy And Technology * Centre for Democratic Communications * Center for Public Representation * Citizen's Voice - New Zealand * Cloud 9 Internet *Computer Communicators Association * Computel Network Services * Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility * Cross Connection * Cyber-Rights Campaign * CyberQueer Lounge * Dutch Digital Citizens' Movement * ECHO Communications Group, Inc. * Electronic Frontier Canada * Electronic Frontier Foundation * Electronic Frontier Foundation - Austin * Electronic Frontiers Australia * Electronic Frontiers Houston * Electronic Frontiers New Hampshire * Electronic Privacy Information Center * Feminists For Free Expression * First Amendment Teach-In * Florida Coalition Against Censorship * FranceCom, Inc. Web Advertising Services * Friendly Anti-Censorship Taskforce for Students * Hands Off! The Net * Human Rights Watch * Inland Book Company * Inner Circle Technologies, Inc. * Inst. for Global Communications * Internet On-Ramp, Inc. * Internet Users Consortium * Joint Artists' and Music Promotions Political Action Committee * The Libertarian Party * Marijuana Policy Project * Metropolitan Data Networks Ltd. * MindVox * MN Grassroots Party * National Bicycle Greenway * National Campaign for Freedom of Expression * National Coalition Against Censorship * National Gay and Lesbian Task Force * National Public Telecomputing Network * National Writers Union * Oregon Coast RISC * Panix Public Access Internet * People for the American Way * Republican Liberty Caucus * Rock Out Censorship * Society for Electronic Access * The Thing International BBS Network * The WELL * Voters Telecommunications Watch (Note: All 'Electronic Frontier' organizations are independent entities, not EFF chapters or divisions.) ________________________________________________________________________ End Alert =======================================================================