Center for Democracy and Technology Amendment No. 3695 to the Internet taxation bill
Offered by Mr. Dan Coats     October 7, 1998



On page 17, between lines 15 and 16, insert the following:

(c) EXCEPTION TO MORATORIUM.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (a) shall also not apply in the case of any person or entity who in interstates or foreign commerce is knowingly engaged in the business of selling or transferring, by means of the World Wide Web, material that is harmful to minors unless such person or entity requires the use of a verified credit card, debit account, adult access code, or adult personal identification number or such other procedures as the Federal Communications Commission may prescribe, in order to restrict access to such material by persons under 17 years of age.

(2) SCOPE OF EXCEPTION.—For purpose of paragraph (1), a person shall not be considered to engaged in business of selling or transferring material by means of the World Wide Web to the extent that the person is-

(A) a telecommunications carrier engaged in the provision of a telecommunications service;

(B) a person engaged in the business of providing an Internet access service;

(C) a person engaged in the business of providing an Internet information location tool; or

(D) similarly engaged in the transmission, storage, retrieval, hosting, formatting, or translation ( or any combination thereof) of a communication made by another person, without selection or alteration of the communication.

(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection:

(A) BY MEANS OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB.—The term "by means of the World Wide Web" means by placement of material in a computer server-based file archives so that it is publicly accessible, over the Internet, using hypertext transfer protocol, file transfer protocol, or other similar protocols.

(B) ENGAGED IN THE BUSINESS.—The term "engaged in the business" means that the person who sells or transfers or offers to sells or transfer, by means World Wide web, material that is harmful to minors devotes time, attention or labor to such activities as a regular course of trade or business, with the objective of earning a profit, although it is not necessary that the person make a profit or that the selling or transferring or offering to sell or transfer such material be the personžs sole or principle business or source of income.

(C) INTERNET.—The term "Internet" means the combination of computer facilities and electromagnetic transmission media, and related equipment and software, comprising the interconnected world wide network of computer networks that employ the Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol, or any predecessor or successor protocol, to transmit information.

(D) INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE.—The term "Internet access service" means a service that enables users to access content, information, electronic mail, or other services offered over the Internet and may also include access to proprietary content, information, and other services as part of a package of services offered to consumers. Such term does not include telecommunications services.

(E) INTERNET INFORMATION LOCATION TOOL—The term "Internet information location tool" means a service that refers or links users to an online location on the World Wide Web. Such term include directories, indices, references, pointers, and hypertext links.

(F) MATERIAL THAT IS HARMFUL TO MINORS.—The term "material that is harmful to minors " means any communication, picture, image, graphic image file, article, recording, writing, or other matter of any kind that—

(I) taken as a whole and with respect to minors, appeals to a prurient interest in nudity, sex or excretion;

(II) depicts, describes, or represents, in a patently offensive way with respect to what is suitable for minors, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual acts or a lewd exhibition of the genitals; and

(III) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.

(G) SEXUAL ACT ; SEXUAL CONTACT.—The term "sexual act " and "sexual contact" have the meanings given such terms in section 2246 of title 18, United States Code.

(H) TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIER;TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE.—The terms "telecommunications carrier" and telecommunication service have the meanings given such terms in section 3 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153)





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