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  The Center for Democracy and Technology  /____/     Volume 2, Number 6
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     A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online
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 CDT POLICY POST Volume 2, Number 6                        February 8, 1996

 CONTENTS: (1) President Clinton Signs CDA, Protest Begins
           (2) Subscription Information
           (3) About CDT, contacting us

This document may be redistributed freely provided it remains in its entirety
       ** Excerpts may be re-posted by permission (editor@cdt.org) **
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(1) PRESIDENT CLINTON SIGNS CDA, WORLD WIDE WEB GOES BLACK

President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Reform Bill, CDA and all, into 
law this morning.  

In response, and in overwhelming numbers, people around the world are making 
their web pages black (with white text) to illustrate the far reaching effect 
of the new online 'indecency' restrictions included in the "Communications 
Decency Act".  Over 1500 sites have indicated their support for the protest, 
including:

* Sen. Patrick Leahy  - http://www.senate.gov/~leahy
* Rep. Jerrold Nadler - http://www.house.gov/nadler/welcome.html
* Yahoo               - http://www.yahoo.com/
* SurfWatch Software  - http://www.surfwatch.com/
* Netcom              - http://www.netcom.com/
* And many others. 

A complete listing is available at http://www.cdt.org/speech.html

The story about the protest, and the concerns of the entire Internet community 
over the new, sweeping restrictions on constitutional speech enacted today, 
are finally getting the attention they deserve in the National media. In 
addition, we've seen an amazing outpouring of support around the country and 
around the world for this effort, and hope you all feel a part of something 
larger than all of us put together.  We certainly do.  

CDT, along with other prominent public interest civil liberties organizations, 
individuals, community groups, and businesses which would be effected by the 
CDA, are preparing a law suit against the provisions to be filed in Federal 
Court very soon.  Details will be announced on this list and posted on CDT's 
web site as they become available.

48 HOUR PROTEST INFORMATION - DARKENING THE WEB

If you have joined the protest, please continue to keep your web page
backgrounds black until Saturday, noon. 

Thank you for participating in the Internet's most visible Internet 
demonstration ever. Together, we are demonstrating that the Internet.Community 
is a growing political force capable of making our concerns felt on a National 
scale. This truly is an historic moment.

More information on the protest, as well as information about the Internet 
-censorship issue (including the text of the final CDA, analysis, and other 
relevant materials) are available at CDT's net-censorship web page:

CDT's Net-Censorship Issues Page    --    http://www.cdt.org/cda.html
Information about the Protest       --    http://www.cdt.org/speech.html

If you do not have world wide web access, send email to one of CDT's autoreply 
aliases:

General Information about the CDA   --    cda-info@cdt.org
Current Status of the CDA           --    cda-stat@cdt.org
Information about the Protest       --    protest@cdt.org

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(2) SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Be sure you are up to date on the latest public policy issues affecting civil
liberties online and how they will affect you! Subscribe to the CDT Policy 
Post 
news distribution list.  CDT Policy Posts, the regular news publication of the 
Center For Democracy and Technology, are received by more than 9,000 Internet 
users, industry leaders, policy makers and activists, and have become the 
leading source for information about critical free speech and privacy issues 
affecting the Internet and other interactive communications media.

To subscribe to CDT's Policy Post list, send mail to

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If you ever wish to remove yourself from the list, send mail to the
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(3) ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY/CONTACTING US

The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest
organization based in Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to develop
and advocate public policies that advance democratic values and 
constitutional civil liberties in new computer and communications 
technologies.

Contacting us:

General information:  info@cdt.org
World Wide Web:       URL:http://www.cdt.org/
FTP                   URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/

Snail Mail:  The Center for Democracy and Technology
             1001 G Street NW * Suite 500 East * Washington, DC 20001
             (v) +1.202.637.9800 * (f) +1.202.637.0968

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End Policy Post 2.6                                            2/8/96
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