The Communications Decency Act

[deepthroat@alpha.c2.org]

Why The Communications Decency Act passed, or
Follow the money



	There's been a lot of commentary the last few days about this
bill, this strange creature, seemingly of the 'Christian Right.'  Talk
of how and why its unconstitutional, protests; web pages blackened.
But, oddly, no one seems to have examined who pushed the bill through
Congress, or why.

	Theres been a lot of talk lately about 'the rise of the new
media,' how first interactive TV, then the net, are going to become
this new thing, a way of getting news events.  The 'old media' even
reported on it; how could it not, it was being pre-empted.  IRC beat
CNN five years ago during the US-Iraq war.  Bill Clinton's campaign
took his message (a little) to the net, a little to MTV.  But where
does that leave the big guys?  ABC, NBC, CBS??  Can they survive in
this brave new world which the net threatens to be?

	By and large, they looked at themselves, and saw they could
not.  They are gargantuan dinosaurs, threatened by, well, hell,
you've heard the metaphors.  So had the dinosaurs.  And, as you should
have expected, they reacted, the main way they knew how.  They bought
themselves a law.  This is the way broadcasters have always worked.
When there was competition, they created the F.C.C. to tell them what
to say and not say.  When cable came along, and threatened to destroy
them, they got cable regulated.  It was interstate commerce after all.
Not that space in the ground is a scarce resource, but the
broadcasters are a powerful group.  They create and maintain
campaigns, name recognition, politicians.

	And they were threatened.  Not only where they threatened, but
their symbiotes, the politicians they created and maintained, where
threatened.  Theres not a politician alive who doesn't remember how
Nixon looked next to Kennedy.  But now, they understand the game, and
they play it.

	Kristol once defined conservatism as the fear of change.  Big
Media is inherently conservative, and with good reason.  They make
lots of money the way things are.  They don't want that to change.
And they weren't going to let it.

	The net is free-wheeling, easy going, and useful.  Its not the
stiltified, self-referential, wasteland of television.  It has to be
stopped.

	But how to do it?  You can't very well say 'This threatens our
business interests,' when you're as widely disliked as the mass media.
You need allies.  You need a cover story.  A Gulf of Tonkin incident.
You need to protect the children.  And who more manipulable today than
the religious right?  Heads spinning with newfound power and
influence, they're the perfect dupes, with a perfect cause.

	And in driving through a bill to castrate the internet, the
religious right had the perfect ally.  The media.  After all, the
media is running scared.  They're not going to present this as a big
government issue, or a matter of censorship.  They're not even going
to portray the opposition.  They're going to portray it as reasonable
people, protecting our kids, vs ACLU free speech absolutists.

	And they did.  The CDA passed.  Not only did it pass, it
steamrollered the opposition, because the opposition didn't see what
was coming.  We were deer in their headlights, and now they're
feasting on roadkill.

	So what do we do about it?  The satisfying response would be
to kill your television.  But that really doesn't do any good.
Neither does killing your Senator.  Ignoring it, in a massive act of
uncivil disobedience might work.  But turn your web pages obscene
won't carry the big ISPs, the way turning them black did.  What a
waste of time.  (Actually, it might not have been.  People on the web
now all know about the CDA, and can't claim ignorance.)

	So ignoring it might work.  But a better response is
arbitrage.  Move your web business to Anguilla.  Jersey.  The Isle of
Man.  The Seychelles.  It doesn't cost much more than hosting them in
the USA.  Tell your Senators.  Tell your Representatives.  Tell your
President.  But most importantly, tell your friends.  Your relatives.
Your customers.  Let business flee these expensive halls, and see how
long the regulations last.  No Senator can vote against the
information superhighway, and when it becomes clear to every American
that the CDA is causing America to become a backwater, the rules may
change.


DT.
Deepthroat@alpha.c2.org