"Communications Decency Act" signed into law

[Pat Wilson <paw@phibes.dartmouth.edu>]

President Clinton has this afternoon signed into law the Telecommunications
bill, which contains the "Communications Decency Act".  The CDA would make
illegal, under penalty of fines and jail time, the dissemination to minors
(or in places where minors have access) of electronic material (e-mail, gifs, 
postings, etc) deemed "indecent".  

Not _only_ is this a blatant attack on the Constitutionally guaranteed
right of Free Speech, but, as written, maintainers of sites that knowingly
allow these materials to be present on their site are _also_ liable.  Sysadmins
who maintain web sites or anonymous ftp servers, especially at
organizations which hold Free Speech in high regard, should be *very*
concerned.

Yes, the ACLU (and a host of others) will challenge this (and another
add-on, which would prohibit free discussion of abortion on the net), but
it's important that we _each_ take a stand.  Check out the Electronic
Frontier Foundation's Blue Ribbon Campaign at
	http://www.eff.org/blueribbon.html

If you're interested in supporting the "Thousand Points of Darkness"
protest, that information is at
	http://www.vtw.org/speech/

*Please* at least take the time to investigate this issue.

Thanks.

Pat Wilson
paw@dartmouth.edu