Fwd: cyberspace, congressional hearings

[fen@genmagic.genmagic.com (Fen Labalme)]

> Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 17:51:38 -0800
> From: Bruce Smith <bruce@wri.com>
> Subject: cyberspace, congressional hearings

The following is quoted/paraphrased from a column by Brian Robinson on page 26
of the 1 March 93 Electronic Engineering Times. By passing it on I imply no
specific attitude of my own. I don't know the date of the hearings, but if
someone finds out if/when it will be viewable on C-Span, I'd like to know.
Feel free to pass the following info to individuals, mailing lists, or
newsgroups.

---

The House Telecommunications Subcommittee, chaired by Edward Markey (D-Mass),
will soon be holding hearings on the relationship of future communications
technologies to modern culture. In particular, it will be looking at the
not-so-far-off universe of cyberspace. Some of the issues the panel will be
considering are (in Markey's own words):

+ Are the fundamental values of our society so universal and enduring that they
will not be threatened by the advent of new technologies or any new subcultures
such technologies produce?

+ Will cyberspace instead become some lawless place, where the Constitution is
cracked open by fiber fissures created when trying to convert a 200-year-old
parchment document into a binary world of 0s and 1s? Can it continue to be a
"living, breathing document"?

+ Will cyberspace develop its own distinct laws? Will it develop "digital
vigilantes" to patrol and police the electronic bulletin boards and electronic
highways?