CDT POLICY POST Volume 5, Number 23 October 4, 1999 A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE from THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY CONTENTS: (1) Mandatory Filtering Language in Juvenile Justice Bill (2) More Mandatory Filtering in an Appropriations Bill (3) Additional Content Restrictions in Congress (4) COPA Litigation Update (5) Policy Post Administration _______________________________________________________________________ (1) MANDATORY FILTERING LANGUAGE IN JUVENILE JUSTICE BILL A massive juvenile justice bill has been passed by both the House and Senate. Included as sections 1401-1403 of the House version is a requirement that filtering and blocking software be used by all schools and libraries receiving federal e-rate funding to connect to the Internet. Such institutions would have to filter or block access to three kinds of material: (1) child pornography, (2) obscenity, and (3) "during use by minors," material that is deemed "harmful to minors." The Senate version of the bill does not include a school and library filtering mandate, but section 1504 requires all Internet Service Providers with 50,000 or more subscribers to give residential customers access to filtering software either free or at cost. Last year, Congress required all ISPs to give their customers information about and access to Internet filtering software, but did not prohibit ISPs from making a profit from such services. The two chambers are negotiating to reconcile their differing versions of the juvenile justice bill; predictions of its fate change almost daily. For more details on the mandatory filtering language in the House version, see http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_5.11.html. For the text of the juvenile justice bill, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:H.R.1501: Join CDT's Activist List for updates on your representatives' role in the future of this bill: http://www.cdt.org/join _______________________________________________________________________ (2) ISTOOK MANDATORY FILTERING LANGUAGE IN APPROPRIATIONS BILL The House version of the appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services includes filtering language, introduced by Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK). The Istook amendment, if enacted into law, would require that any computer purchased or operated through the receipt of federal funds (including not just e-rate subsidies, but National Science Foundation grants or National Endowment for the Humanities grants, for example) must install filtering software to "ensure" that minors are prevented from accessing material that is either obscene or child pornography. Material that is legally obscene or child pornography is already illegal under current law. However, there is no perfect, legally attuned filtering product. It is impossible to "ensure" that minors are prevented from accessing this material, and the attempt to do so would prevent both minors and adults from accessing some material that is neither obscene nor child pornography, but is deemed to be so by the software in question. The Istook amendment attempts to force a one-size-fits-all policy for child safety onto a system of independent community libraries and school districts. It ignores the efforts of such resources as GetNetWise (http://www.getnetwise.org), which help people find the policy or tool that best reflects their values and circumstances. _______________________________________________________________________ (3) ADDITIONAL CONTENT-RESTRICTING LEGISLATION S. 1428, the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999, forbids the distribution by any means of information on how to manufacture controlled substances. It also forbids posting on the Internet, transmitting or linking to any matter (including a telephone number or electronic or mail address) knowing that such matter has the purpose of seeking or offering, or is designed to be used, to receive, buy, distribute, or otherwise facilitate a transaction in a controlled substance. Whether this would apply, for example, to political speech related to medical use of marijuana, is not clear in the bill. The Senate juvenile justice bill contains provisions (Sections 1561 - 1564) that would prohibit the sale or advertising on the Internet of firearms or explosives. Also, Sections 401 - 406 of the juvenile justice bill would create a media antitrust exemption allowing Internet and traditional media corporations to work together to "voluntarily" restrict content that is violent, sexually explicit, depicts illegal activity, or is otherwise inappropriate for children. Several other sections of the House version of the juvenile justice bill may also affect Internet content. Section 116 requires the U.S. Surgeon General to review all current social science literature about the effect on juveniles of violence in the media, specifically including the Internet. Section 1361 requires the National Academy of Sciences to begin studying influences on school violence, specifically including the Internet. _______________________________________________________________________ (4) COPA LITIGATION UPDATE The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has received all briefs in the ACLU's challenge to the Children's Online Protection Act (COPA). CDT filed an amicus brief, along with other civil liberties groups and trade associations. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Internet Education Foundation also filed an amicus brief in opposition to Internet censorship. Oral arguments are scheduled for November 4, 1999, and a decision should come from the Third Circuit within a few months of the oral argument. CDT's brief: http://www.cdt.org/speech/copa/990901amicus.shtml IEF and the US Chamber of Commerce brief: http://www.neted.org/docs/COPAamicus.html _______________________________________________________________________ (5) POLICY POST ADMINISTRATION To subscribe to CDT's Policy Post list, send mail to majordomo@cdt.org In the BODY of the message type "subscribe policy-posts" without the quotes. To unsubscribe from CDT's Policy Post list, send mail to majordomo@cdt.org In the BODY of the message type "unsubscribe policy-posts" without the quotes. Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be found at http://www.cdt.org/ This document may be redistributed freely in full or linked to http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_5.23.shtml. Excerpts may be re-posted with prior permission of ari@cdt.org Policy Post 5.23 Copyright 1999 Center for Democracy and Technology