Re: S.652 (H.R. 1555)

["Declan B. McCullagh" <declan+@CMU.EDU>]

Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 9-Jan-96 Re: S.652 (H.R. 1555) by
Don Gaffney@emba.uvm.edu 
> I'm not a lawyer, but from what I've read from the WWW site above, it
> seems that only providing "indecent" materials to minors is prohibited.
> I think this is already illegal.

Fortunately, that's not true. Now, I'm anything but a lawyer, so I
welcome corrections. My understanding is:

* INDECENCY is illegal to *broadcast* under Federal law, as enforced by
the FCC. Examples of indecent words include "fuck" and "cocksucker,"
which the Supreme Court has defined as illegal in the George Carlin
speech, Pacifica case. The justification for a compelling government
interest is that radio waves are pervasive, and a child can turn on the
radio and hear dirty words by accident. The great free speech attorney
Harvey Silverglate has been representing Alan Ginsberg in an "indecency"
case, since "Howl" contains "indecent" words -- I believe he managed to
get the FCC to include an exemption for material broadcast after
midnight.

* OBSCENITY is illegal to *distribute* under state laws, which usually
incorporate the Miller test. That is, material which has no redeeming
artistic, scientific, educational, or political value is obscene. (There
are some excemptions, including university libraries. The ACLU has
argued that in that context, Usenet can be considered a library.) In
practice, text is not obscene; only bestiality and heavy BDSM pix are.

> It sounds to me like the only real task posed is to authenticate those
> accessing questionable materials as being >= 18 years old. Hmmmm. Don't
> authentication & crypto go hand-in-hand?

If you're running a public web site or anon FTP site, how do you do
that? And should you have to?

Anyway, the current telecom bill language continues to include the
"indecency" language. Since there are no post-midnight exemptions, it
means the Internet would be the most regulated communications medium in
the United States. 

What does that mean? When this becomes law, you'll be hit with fines of
$250,000 and prison terms of two years if you post the word "fuck" in a
Usenet newsgroup or on a web page where a minor can read it.

Fuck that.

-Declan