Censorship In Cyberspace 1/6

[rarachel@photon.poly.edu (Arsen Ray Arachelian)]

This is a transcript of the FFE's Censorship in Cyberspace forum.  This
transcript was made possible by funds from John Young.  Major thanks
John.





            ****  Feminists For Free Expression  ****





                    CENSORSHIP IN CYBERSPACE


                St. Peter's Church, New York City

                   Saturday, October 22, 1994





          Moderator:     Joan Kennedy Taylor

          Panelists:     Robert Corn-Revere
                         Ellen Lafontaine
                         Gerard Van Der Leun
                         Philip Zimmermann








                           TRANSCRIPT

                    Censorship in Cyberspace



The Panelists:


Robert Corn-Revere is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of
Hogan & Hartson, specializing in First Amendment and communications
law.  He has extensive experience in practice before the Federal
Communications Commission and federal courts.  Mr. Corn-Revere
received a B.A. from Eastern Illinois University in 1977 and an
M.A. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1980.

Ellen Lafontaine is completing her doctoral studies at New York
University in International Education on a Foreign Language Area
Studies fellowship.  Her research focuses on the role of
intercultural learning networks in the foreign language classroom. 
Ms. Lafontaine is one of the organizers of YouthCaN '95, an
international youth conference for environmental projects via
telecommunications.

Gerard Van Der Leun is formerly with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation.  He is a serious hobbyist on the InterNet and has
hosted several on-line conferences.

Philip Zimmermann is the creator of the controversial "Pretty Good
Privacy" encryption software (this "freeware" has spread as far
away as Europe) for which he is now under criminal investigation,
awaiting possible federal indictment.  He lives in Boulder,
Colorado.




The Moderator:


John Kennedy Taylor is the author of "Reclaiming the Mainstream: 
Individualist Feminism Rediscovered", published in 1992 by
Prometheus Books.  Her work has also appeared in, among other
places, The Wall Street Journal, Success, and Reason.  Ms. Taylor
was a commentator on the Cato Institute's syndicated radio program,
"Byline," for ten years (1979 through 1989).  She is also Vice-
President of Feminists For Free Expression.
          INTRODUCTION:   Good afternoon, and welcome for joining
us.  It's an absolutely gorgeous afternoon, so we're very happy to
see you here.  I'm Trish Moynihan Williams.  I'm a member of the
Board of Directors of Feminists for Free Expression, and this
afternoon I'm actually the voice of Rachel Hickerson, our Executive
Director, who unfortunately has a bad case of laryngitis.  So I'm
speaking for her, but I really hope you won't miss the opportunity
this afternoon to say hello to Rachel even though she may croak
back, and get to meet our wonderful Executive Director.
          I wanted to tell you just a little bit about Feminists
for Free Expression for those of you who are just getting to know
our organization.  We are a group of diverse feminists working to
preserve the individual's right to read, hear, view and produce
materials of her own choice without the intervention of the State
"for her own good."  I encourage you to learn more about us.  There
are pamphlets in the entry way as you came in if you haven't picked
one up already.  And to join us.  We are a membership organization,
and really need your support.
          As you see listed on your program this afternoon we have
a stunning lineup for our program on Censorship in Cyberspace, and
that program is going to be moderated by FFE's own Joan Kennedy
Taylor.  Joan has been [involved with] feminist issues since the
early 1970's.  She is the author of Reclaiming the Mainstream: 
Individualist Feminist Rediscovered, which was published in 1992 by
Prometheus Books.  In 1993 the Hoover Institution commissioned her
to write the essay, "Women's Issues:  Feminism, Classical
Liberalism and the Future."  Among the places where her work has
appeared are the Wall Street Journal, Success, The Washington Times
and Reason.  She is Vice President of Feminists for Free
Expression.  So I am delighted to turn the program over to her. 
Joan.
                          *     *     *

          KENNEDY TAYLOR:  Can everybody hear all right?  There is
no sound system, but I am told the acoustics are excellent.  Okay. 
This is a very exciting program for me, because so much is going on
and so much is changing so quickly that every day brings something
new.  This is a new age in communications, and it also has its
problems.  On-line services are becoming gigantic.  The InterNet
makes national borders irrelevant, which to some people seems a
real problem.  Torrents of information and misinformation can be
received or disseminated by anyone with a computer modem.  Security
establishments have lost their virtual monopolies on encryption to
such an extent that an article in the Times compares trying to
enforce a universal coding standard such as the Clipper Chip with
trying to enforce prohibition.
          The U.S. Congress just before it adjourned passed the
controversial Digital Telephony Act, a wiretapping bill that
requires phone companies to keep their networks accessible to law
enforcement wiretaps as they install new technologies.  What does
this all mean in the age old fight between those who want to
control how ideas and expression are communicated and those who
believe in the literalness of the First Amendment, that Congress
shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press?
          We have asked a number of experts who also believe in
civil liberties and the First Amendment to explain why we do not
have to abandon these principles as we enter this confusing and
exciting communications age.  Our guests will speak in alphabetical
order, and I hope you all have programs, which give you the back-
ground of all our speakers.  They will speak for twenty minutes
each.  Then there will be a brief period for any questions they may
wish to put to each other and they will then take questions from
the audience.
          First we turn to the relationship between law and
technology.  Advances in communications technology have always been
greeted with suspicion.  Should the law control what we do with
them?  Can the law control them?  Robert Corn-Revere, a Washington
lawyer specializing in communications law, looks at the past and
the future to give us a legal doctrine for the Information Age. 
Robert.