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ACLU Cyber-Liberties Update: 12/6/95
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December 6, 1995
ACLU CYBER-LIBERTIES UPDATE
A bi-weekly e-zine on cyber-liberties cases and controversies
at the state and federal level.
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IN THIS ISSUE:
* ACLU Announces Plans to Challenge Online Censorship Provisions in Court;
Says That House Conference Vote Leaves No Other Options
* AOL Censors Gay Video Titles, Finds "Buns" Acceptable but "Studs" Too
Sleazy
* ACLU Speaks on Cyber-Liberties
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FEDERAL PAGE (Congress/Agency/Court Cases)
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* ACLU Announces Plans to Challenge Online Censorship Provisions in
Court;Says That House Conference Vote Leaves No Other Options
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Phil Gutis 202-675-2312
WASHINGTON -- Saying that it could not depend on Congress to protect free
speech on the Internet, the American Civil Liberties Union said today that it
would challenge in court any of the online censorship proposals now being
considered by a House-Senate conference committee.
In a vote today, the House members of the Congressional conference committee
on the telecommunications bill betrayed their chamber's earlier vote to
reject censorship on the Internet.
"All of Congress's proposals violate the First Amendment and privacy rights
of adults to communicate freely in the online environment," said Barry
Steinhardt, ACLU Associate Director. "Congress is making it ever more clear
that we will have to turn to the courts to uphold free speech in the
promising new medium of cyberspace."
The ACLU rejected as unconstitutional the proposals offered by Senator J.
James Exon, D-Nebraska, Senator Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, and
Representative Henry Hyde, R-Illinois, as well as the one offered by
Representative Rick White, R-Washington.
The House conferees voted today on how to respond to the Senate's provisions
on Internet censorship. Although they first adopted the White censorship
proposal -- which the media widely and inaccurately portrayed as a compromise
-- they then amended it to include the Senate's standard for censorship.
Last August, the House won widespread praise from the online community when
it adopted an amendment to encourage Internet providers to better develop
screening technologies for parents to use in controlling what their children
see in cyberspace. House Speaker Newt Gingrich went as far as to call the
Senate version of the legislation a clear "violation of free speech" and a
"violation of the right of adults to communicate with each other."
Unfortunately," said ACLU Legislative Counsel Donald Haines, "the House
members graciously accepted their applause for opposing censorship and then,
in a legislative slight of hand, turned right around and came up with their
own scheme to censor what people say and see on the Internet."
The ACLU said that it would continue to work in Congress to keep the Internet
free. "Regardless of how the bill turns out," said Haines, "both the House
and Senate need to continue to hear that their censorship is simply not
acceptable."
The House conferee's vote today removes the best chance that a
telecommunications bill will emerge without an Internet censorship provision,
the ACLU said.
"If Congress adopts either the White or Exon censorship schemes -- which
appears increasingly likely -- they will force us to turn to the Courts and
we will sue," Steinhardt said.
More than 25 civil liberties groups, regional Internet service providers, and
commercial producers of entertainment, information, and journalism joined an
ACLU letter, delivered earlier today, that urged the conferees to reject all
proposals to impose new government censorship regulations on cyberspace and
online communications.
The ACLU said that, interestingly enough, the groups and individuals who are
eager to challenge the censorship provisions should they become law have
communicated with the ACLU via the Internet.
Online political columnists, distributors of gay and lesbian resources, human
rights groups, academic researchers of human sexuality, AIDS education
groups, prisoners' rights groups, and student groups with controversial web
pages have all already approached the ACLU about being plaintiffs in a court
challenge. The groups said that they fear prosecution because they use online
services to post, exchange, or distribute material that could be deemed
"indecent" under the proposed law.
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For a copy of the coalition letter sent to the conferees, send a message to
[email protected] with "letter opposing White and Hyde" in the subject line.
The following organizations signed the letter:
American Civil Liberties Union
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
American Communication Association
Art and Technology Society
Association of Alternative Newsweeklies
Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression
Coalition for Academic Freedom of Expression, Carnegie Mellon University
Council of Literary Magazines and Presses
Datalytics, Inc.
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Feminists for Free Expression
Filz and Associates, Inc.
HotWired Magazine
Human Rights Watch
Justice on Campus Project
Internet Users Consortium
LitNet (The Literary Network)
Lumberyard BBS Community Network
MIT Student Association for Freedom of Expression
Media Democracy in Action Consortium (MeDIA Consortium)
National Campaign for Freedom of Expression
National Coalition Against Censorship
National Writers Union
NorthWest Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce
Oregon Coast Rural Information Service Cooperative
Pacific Online Access
Public Access Networks Corp. (Panix)
The Society for Human Sexuality, University of Washington
Wired Magazine
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STATE PAGE (Legislation/Agency/Court Cases)
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* AOL Censors Gay Video Titles, Finds "Buns" Acceptable but "Studs" Too
Sleazy
AOL customers won't be surprised to hear that the AOL censors are at it
again. AOL has long had a policy of screening certain "dirty words" from its
public bulletin boards and chat groups. Last week, The Boston Globe reported
that AOL had banned the word "breast." The company agreed to reverse the
policy after "several days of on-line protests by irate breast cancer
patients." Richard A. Knox, "Women Go Online To Decry Ban On Breast,'" The
Boston Globe, 12/1/95.
Another example of AOL's attempt to use censorship to create a
"family-friendly" service was recently brought to the ACLU's attention.
Jeff Satkin is owner and operator of ATKOL Gay Videos, a mail-order gay video
store headquartered in Plainfield, NJ. Last August, Jeff responded to AOL's
bid for new business by signing up as an advertiser on "Downtown AOL" (DT
AOL). AOL describes the site as "a virtual small business community where
potential customers will come to browse and shop for products and services of
all types." Jeff paid the advertising fee and sent AOL an electronic copy of
his extensive mail-order video catalog for posting on the DT AOL site. Under
the contract, AOL agreed to run the ad for a term of one year. According to
Jeff, AOL posted the catalog in full for four weeks with no complaints.
Then, in September, AOL sent Jeff a letter requesting that a huge percentage
of titles in the ATKOL Video mail-order catalog be removed from the online
version of the catalog that appeared on Downtown AOL. An AOL employee had
gone through a printed version of the list and highlighted the offending
titles that would need to be removed. The result is a hilarious but
frightening example of arbitrary censorship.
At the ACLU's suggestion, Jeff wrote to AOL and asked them to explain the
guidelines they used for censoring his catalog. After considerable delay,
AOL wrote back the following:
"DT AOL does not have any written standards for its advertisements. As the
manager of the area I determine whether an advertisement has the look and
feel that best fits our environment. I edited the file you sent and removed
any titles which I felt didn't reflect the image we would like to project. I
may have missed a few as you pointed out, so feel free to remove those as
well if you would like."
Here are just a few examples of AOL's arbitrary rating system as applied to
the ATKOL Video catalog. (And remember, these are **titles only**!! -- no
pictures, no cover art, no narrative -- just titles.)
AOL Says AOL Says
"Thumbs Down" -- "Thumbs Up" --
These titles were censored as These titles were not censored --
too sleazy for AOL!: they must have had "the look and
feel that best fits the AOL environment":
A Brother's Desire A Family Affair
Advanced Disrobics Lockerroom Fever
All About Sex ABC's of Sex
All the Right Stuff All Men Do It!
As the Bed Turns Bed Tales
Bare Bones Bareback
Bedroom Eyes Bedroom Lies
Bi N Large Bi-Conflict
The Big Nasty The Big Drill
Bigger Than Huge Bigger Than Life
Black Magic Magic Choices
Black Dudes Blond Lovers
The Boy Next Door Boys from New Jersey
Brotherly Love Brother Trouble
Buns N Hoses Bung Hole Buddies
Dirty Pictures Dirty Picture Show
Elements of Passion Passion By Fire
Everybody Does It Every Which Way
Filth Dirty Laundry
Gayracula Gay Tarzan
Hot Lunch Hot Stuff
Latin on the Loose Latin Lust
Leather Angel Leather Report
Man in Motion The Man Inside
Men in Shorts Men with Tools
Night Maneuvers Nights in Black Leather
Power Grip Power Trip
Rican Christmas Latino Nights
The Rites of Spring The Rites of Summer
Skin Deep Skin Tight
Spring Semester Spring Break
Sunday Brunch Summer Heat
Tough and Tender Tough Iron
White Trash White on White
Wild Dreams Wild Thing
You Are Not Alone Alone and Private
Titles with any of the following words, regardless of the full title, were
also censored: "pleasure," "black," "hard," "boys," "jock," "Rican," "sex,"
"stud," "straight," "young."
A few more interesting facts about the case should be noted. First, while
AOL has never publicized the list of "vulgar" words that it routinely screens
from its public sites, most of the screened words are classic profanity and
"dirty words." None of the titles that AOL censored from ATKOL Video's list
contain those "dirty" words. Second, it is clear that AOL's action was an
overreaction to the recent federal law enforcement raids on alleged child
pornographers using AOL -- Jeff received the letter shortly after the raids
made the headlines. But *none* of Jeff's videos contain child porn. And
again -- the info in the catalog was *titles only* and contained no
substantive material at all.
Third, it appears that AOL's arbitrary standards may be a little homophobic.
While "Wet and Wild" was an unacceptable title in a gay video catalog, AOL
ran an ad in Downtown AOL for Affinity Teleproductions, Inc. that read: "Now
you can join exotic Anna Nicole Smith on her sensuous Edenquest adventure in
her exclusive photo portfolio. . . . Anna Nicole Smith "The Collectors Set"
features ten eye opening Edenquest photographs in vivid color . . . . It's
all Anna Nicole Smith wet and wild drenched in sun and powder sugar sand.
"With Love, Anna Nicole" is your personal trip to paradise with the world's
most exciting woman in her most provocative photos ever."
The troubles experienced by ATKOL Video when it legitimately tried to do
business with AOL just proves once again that censorship rules are by nature
arbitrary and unfair -- whether imposed by the government or by private
industry.
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ACLU Speaks on Cyber-Liberties
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12/5/95 Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU, debated Kathy Cleaver of
the American Family Research Council over online censorship proposals on
CNN's "Crossfire."
12/5/95 Barry Steinhardt, Associate Director of the ACLU, debated Bob
Peters of Morality and Media over online censorship proposals on CBS Radio
Network's Gil Gross Show.
12/7/95 Ann Beeson, ACLU cyberspace policy analyst, speaks on a panel at
the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. "Art on the Internet:
Power, Access and Desire," 7:30 p.m. See http://bowlingalley.walkerart.org/.
Next week: Watch the CNBC 6:00 pm news for an interview with Barry
Steinhardt on Congress' proposals to censor the net.
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ONLINE RESOURCES FROM THE ACLU NATIONAL OFFICE
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ACLU Cyber-Liberties Update
Editor: Ann Beeson ([email protected])
American Civil Liberties Union National Office
132 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036
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