Date: Sun, 14 Jan 1996 18:05:27 -0800 (PST) From: "John S. James" Subject: Re: Computer Censorship and AIDS Federal Computer Censorship Bill Threatens AIDS Prevention and Activism -- Background, and Alert from: John S. James, AIDS Treatment News, jjames@aidsnews.org date: 1/14/96 permission granted to forward or post this message Congress is likely to pass a major telecommunications bill which includes amendments making it a felony to put "indecent" material on a computer where a person under 18 can get it. This law will effectively ban explicit AIDS prevention material from the Internet and other open public systems, for adults as well as minors (the identical material in printed form, even when given to minors, is not affected). "Indecent" has not been clearly defined, either by Congress or the courts, so it will mean what a prosecutor and jury anywhere want it to mean. Activists can be arrested in California and prosecuted to the most conservative parts of the country, if a teenager there requests and receives material which the activist placed on the Internet; it is likely that there will be organized efforts to generate and orchestrate such complaints. The Internet is the natural future for AIDS prevention education: * Persons can receive information in complete privacy if they want to. * Geography is no obstacle; rural areas and cities are equivalent. * Publishing and distribution costs are insignificant. * New kinds of information are possible -- for example, fantasy role-playing games. Safer-sex material can include information on contemporary styles and on how different social scenes and relationships work today (for example, featuring visits to real bars and clubs and meetings with fictitious people based on the real people who go there) -- information which can help individuals find and develop satisfying relationships for themselves, in a safer-sex context. Under the current language of the bill now expected to be passed by Congress, any general distribution of sexually explicit AIDS prevention information on the Internet would be a felony. There is no exception for material with redeeming social importance. It would be a tragedy to lose what could be a critically important public health tool before it is even explored. Other concerns with the bill now in Congress and expected to pass: * The law is so poorly thought out that it criminalizes parents who give computerized safer-sex information to their own children, and criminalizes private email which children send to each other. With felonies only keystrokes away, parents, schools and universities may understandably be reluctant to let children use computer communication. * Libraries will be unable to put their full collections online. Works like Ginsberg's Howl and Salinger's Catcher in the Rye have been held indecent in some parts of the country -- which will now prevent libraries anywhere in the U.S. from providing them through any generally accessible computer system. * There are social-class implications. The everyday language of tens of millions of children and adults will become felonious on a computer, under the bill Congress intends to pass -- frustrating efforts to reduce the gap between information "haves" and "have nots." * None of this is necessary to protect children, as parents can use blocking software, or special Internet accounts for children with parental control choices, to provide Internet access without allowing children to obtain objectionable material. * Universities, government agencies, and other institutions now have billions of words of databases and historical archives available free to the public everywhere through the Internet -- much of it submitted over the years by individuals to "newsgroups" and other discussion groups on over 10,000 different topics. A single major AIDS newsgroup, sci.med.aids, now contains half a billion characters of information. No software can automatically flag material that might be ruled indecent by a jury somewhere. Since institutions cannot have their legal staffs peruse and censor all of this archival information, they are likely to shut down public access to avoid possible trouble. * Anything placed on the Internet will usually exist forever as backups at different sites. Messages by or about an individual can be found automatically, even after they have been deleted. Unless legal protections are in place, individuals can be targeted for political reasons, as their entire record can be called up and used selectively to inflame a jury. Anything someone writes after the new law takes effect can be used against them until the statute of limitations expires. * The current draft of the telecommunications bill also changes another criminal law that now makes it a felony to transmit "obscene" material. The new law will also make it a felony, punishable by five years in prison, to merely receive obscene material on your computer, even in the privacy of your own home, even if you never distribute it or show it to anyone, or have any intention of doing so. Just "surfing the net" can quickly become a serious crime. * Online service providers will be conservative about staying out of trouble. For every message prosecuted, thousands more are likely to quietly disappear. * In the future, multimedia computer communication will become the most important means of public human communication by far. If the current bill is passed and survives legal challenges, sexual minorities and all sex-positive persons will be placed at a permanent institutional disadvantage. Under the cover of protecting children from pornography, this legislation uses Federal power to set communication rules for the future which favor certain people, certain philosophies, certain approaches to life -- and damage others. Political History The amendments described above got into the telecommunications bill by only a single vote, 17-16 (of the House conferees, December 6). The conferees were heavily lobbied by the Christian Coalition, which appears to be the lead organization in favor of the censorship approach; others include the American Family Association, Eagle Forum, Concerned Women for America, Traditional Values Coalition, and Free Congress Foundation. Those opposing the computer censorship legislation include the American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way, Electronic Frontiers Foundation, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, other privacy, First Amendment, and computer groups, and many arts organizations. House Speaker Newt Gingrich also strongly opposed the censorship provisions when they were first passed by the Senate on June 14. The major online companies like America Online are very concerned about their liability for messages placed by subscribers, and seem to be having difficulty negotiating legal protection for themselves. Most computer companies are not paying attention, as their leaders are focused on technology and business, and are often indifferent or disdainful toward politics. So far the AIDS and gay communities have been almost completely silent on this issue. Both California senators, Feinstein and Boxer, voted for the Exon Amendment on June 14; apparently they had not heard from anyone about how that provision will affect AIDS prevention and advocacy. Even our friends in Congress have not realized that there is any AIDS issue involved. Action Needed ** Short term: Spread the word -- alert AIDS organizations about this issue. Congress needs to know that the current draft legislation will harm AIDS prevention efforts. Tell your Senators and Representative to oppose Federal censorship in the telecommunications bill and elsewhere -- that parents can already control what their children receive by computer, and government censorship is not acceptable. ** Long term: Whatever Congress does now, this issue will be with us for years. We need to build long-term working relationships with civil liberties, arts, and other organizations concerned with free speech. Coalitions built now will be valuable forever. ** What you can do today: Help forward this message to relevant groups, including AIDS, arts, gay, libertarian, progressive, and computer organizations. You probably know several online or other communities who would be interested. OK to forward this email unchanged, or to add your cover letter, or to quote our material in your message. For More Information: AIDS Treatment News, 415/861-2432, jjames@aidsnews.org American Civil Liberties Union, 212/944-9800x414 (or new Web page, http://www.aclu.org -- or America Online, keyword 'ACLU'. Electronic Frontier Foundation, http://www.eff.org Center for Democracy and Technology, http://www.cdt.org Voters Telecommunications Watch, http://www.vtw.org/