EFFector Vol. 11, No. 9 June 15, 1998 editor@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
IN THIS ISSUE
* EFF URGES INTERNET USERS TO JOIN A NEW BLUE RIBBON CAMPAIGN TO
OPPOSE CURRENT ATTEMPTS TO CENSOR THE NET
1. Placing the Blue Ribbon on Your Site
2. The Struggle Isn't Over Yet
3. About the Electronic Frontier Foundation
* ADMINISTRIVIA
See http://www.eff.org for more information on EFF activities &
alerts!
_________________________________________________________________
EFF URGES INTERNET USERS TO JOIN A NEW BLUE RIBBON CAMPAIGN TO OPPOSE CURRENT
ATTEMPTS TO CENSOR THE NET
Please distribute widely to appropriate forums
June 15, 1998
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is re-launching its Blue
Ribbon Campaign for Online Freedom of Expression today (June 15, 1998)
in opposition to renewed Congressional attempts to impose censorship
controls on the Internet in the U.S. The original campaign, launched
in conjunction with the related "Turn the Web Black" anti-censorship
protest in 1995, raised awareness of and opposition to the
Communications Decency Act (CDA), which was eventually ruled
unconstitutional by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision one year
ago this month.
All Web users are strongly encouraged to place a Blue Ribbon Campaign
icon on their servers and Web pages.
_________________________________________________________________
Placing the Blue Ribbon on Your Site
Beginning with the original Blue Ribbon Campaign against the CDA,
hundreds of thousands of World Wide Web sites all over the world have
chosen to display the Blue Ribbon on their pages and link to EFF Web
pages containing information about censorship legislation and free
speech on the Internet. The Blue Ribbon page became the fourth
most-linked-to site on the Internet and has been accessed millions of
times - peaking at over a million hits per day when President Clinton
signed the ill-fated CDA into law. There are at least 170,000 sites
that carry the Blue Ribbon today.
The new Blue Ribbon Campaign will link directly to a Congressional
action site to encourage Internet users to contact their legislators
to defend their free speech rights on the Internet. This site is
currently sponsored by EFF in conjunction with the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center
(EPIC) and provides users the ability to send their legislators a FAX
or e-mail opposing the two bills.
All Web users are strongly encouraged to place a Blue Ribbon Campaign
icon (below) on their servers and Web pages. Just copy and paste this
text into your HTML Web page where you want the Blue Ribbon icon to
appear:
NOTE: If your site has traffic topping 30,000 hits a day, we request
that you copy the Blue Ribbon icon to your server and link to it
locally. The EFF server will not be able to handle that amount of
extra traffic from multiple sites. The typical participant will want
to link to our copy, which automatically changes to an "ALERT!"
version during times of danger to online free speech.
Non-U.S. Activists: You may wish to seek out others in your area to
form a (formal or informal) group to track censorship legislation,
Internet regulation, and Net-related free speech legal cases in your
jurisdiction. We will be happy to link to new Blue Ribbon pages in
other parts of the world. We are also aware that in some areas the
blue ribbon symbol may stand for other causes already; in such places,
an alternate symbol will be needed (perhaps a blue torch?).
_________________________________________________________________
The Struggle Isn't Over Yet
Though the Communications Decency Act (CDA) was unanimously struck
down by a strongly pro-freedom US Supreme Court decision (Reno v.
ACLU) in 1997, US Senator Dan Coats (R-IN) has advanced a new unnamed
"Son of CDA" Internet censorship bill, S. 1492. The bill would
constitute a ban on web posting of material deemed "harmful to
minors." This censorship bill would make it a crime to have the
content of the average bookstore or library available from a web site!
Additionally, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is pushing another "sequel" to
the CDA. His "Internet School Filtering Act," S. 1619, would force
federally funded libraries (and schools) to use software filters to
censor adult and child access on their Internet connections in the
name of "protecting children from pornography." Such filtering
software does not actually perform as advertised. Not only is such
software physically incapable of blocking material that fits a
particular legal definition such as "obscene," but it has also been
demonstrated to block numerous sites with no "obscene" or "indecent"
content whatsoever, including a wealth of material that is perfectly
suitable for children.
Action on both bills appeared to be waning, since both were considered
"too controversial" to make it onto the Senate's "Tech Week" fast
track bill consideration and passage schedule in mid-May. This means
our activism is paying off. However, both bills are expected to arise
for legislative debate and vote before Congress in the next three
weeks, so this is no time for complacency. All Senators need to
receive even more constituent letters and faxes opposing these bills,
or they might well pass at the last minute.
More information on the bills is available on the EFF Web site. See
http://www.eff.org/pub/Censorship/Internet_censorship_bills/1998_bills/
About the Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is one of the leading civil
liberties organizations devoted to ensuring that the Internet remains
the world's first truly global vehicle for free speech, and that the
privacy and security of all on-line communication is preserved.
Founded in 1990 as a nonprofit, public interest organization, EFF is
based in San Francisco, California. EFF maintains an extensive archive
of information on encryption policy, privacy, and free speech at
http://www.eff.org .
_________________________________________________________________
ADMINISTRIVIA
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