ALAWON v4n105 (December 12, 1995)
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v4n105

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                                                   ISSN 1069-7799
                             ALAWON
                 ALA Washington Office Newsline
               An electronic publication of the
         American Library Association Washington Office

                      Volume 4, Number 105
                       December 12, 1995

In this issue: (219 lines)
     URGENT ACTION NEEDED:  FINAL FORM OF INTERNET CONTENT
          REGULATIONS TO BE VOTED ON BY HOUSE AND SENATE
          TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM BILL CONFEREES

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  FINAL FORM OF INTERNET CONTENT REGULATIONS TO BE VOTED ON BY
   HOUSE AND SENATE TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM BILL CONFEREES

Congressional sources indicated this morning that, while Congress
IS likely to adopt new content-based criminal penalties, the final
form of the so-called "Cyberporn" provisions remains up in the
air.  Staff to Representatives Hyde and White reportedly met into
the night yesterday in an effort to reconcile their respective
proposals.  Senate conferees are slated to meet this afternoon,
but may be delayed in returning to the table by expected Senate
votes on committing U.S. forces to Bosnia.

ALA has repeatedly urged the conferees NOT to adopt any new
criminal penalties for use of the Internet and other
telecommunications systems.  It has also urged, however, that if
Congress insists on doing so, criminal penalties should be
triggered only by the transmission of material legally deemed
"harmful to minors" (Mr. White's proposal) rather than by
"indecent" material (as advanced by Mr. Hyde in the House and Mr.
Exon in the Senate).  Even if Representatives Hyde and White reach
agreement, they must still convince the Senate conferees to accept
a liability trigger based on something other than the
constitutionally suspect "indecency" standard.

As detailed in recent ALAWONs, the stakes in this debate for
libraries and educational institutions are very high.  New
content-based criminal penalties for Internet transmission,
especially ones based on "indecent" material, could well cripple
libraries' and schools' trail-blazing efforts to put both children
and adults on-line.

Conference Committee members in both chambers of Congress MUST
hear this message from you.  IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO HAVE AN IMPACT
ON THIS DEBATE!  NOW IS THE TIME TO PHONE, FAX AND E-MAIL BOTH THE
HOUSE AND SENATE MEMBERS OF THE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE.

ACTION NEEDED:  A list of key House and Senate conferee phone and
fax numbers (and e-mail addresses, where available) appears below.
Constituents are urged to contact their own legislators, but
especially constituents of conferees, with a clear message:

**  DO NOT adopt new content-based criminal penalties for use of
telecommunications systems; current criminal laws are adequate to
protect the nation's children;

**  IF such penalties are to be adopted, they should be imposed
only for the transmission of material that is "harmful to minors,"
the legal standard now used in 48 states, NOT for transmitting
"indecent" material which even the courts have not successfully
defined;

** ENACTMENT of new criminal laws, especially ones triggered by
the "indecency" standard, will force libraries across the country
to drastically curtail public access to the Internet for BOTH
children and adults in order to avoid prison sentences and stiff
fines.  PROVIDE examples from your library of the kinds of
services, if you now offer them, that new criminal penalties could
force you to discontinue.

Finally, these and other points are emphasized in a draft op-ed
article by ALA President Betty Turock also reproduced below.  The
Washington Office is also working to place this piece tomorrow in
a major national newspaper.   Please feel free to borrow from it
in speaking with congressional offices and staff, AND to make it
the basis for your own letters to the editor of your local
newspapers and television stations.  Few things are as important
to a Member of Congress as the hometown newspaper and other media.


         LET LIBRARY VOICES BE HEARD!  NOW IS THE TIME


         KEY SENATE AND HOUSE TELECOMM REFORM CONFEREES

 P ST Name & E-mail Address         Phone          Fax
 = == ========================     ==========    ==========
                              Use 202 Area Code for all numbers
 R AK Stevens, Ted                  224-3004      224-2354
 R AZ McCain, John                  224-2235      228-2862
       senator_mccain@mccain.senate.gov
 D HI Inouye, Daniel K.             224-3934      224-6747
 R KS Dole, Robert                  224-6521      228-1245
 D KY Ford, Wendell H.              224-4343      N/A
       wendell_ford@ford.senate.gov
 R MS Lott, Trent                   224-6253      224-2262
 R MT Burns, Conrad R.              224-2644      224-8594
       conrad_burns@burns.senate.gov
 D NE Exon, J. J.                   224-4224      224-5213
 D SC Hollings, Ernest F.           224-6121      224-4293
       senator@hollings.senate.gov
 R SD Pressler, Larry               224-5842      224-1630
       larry_pressler@pressler.senate.gov
 R WA Gorton, Slade                 224-3441      224-9393
       senator_gorton@gorton.senate.gov
 D WV Rockefeller, John D.          224-6472      224-7665
       senator@rockefeller.senate.gov

 P ST&Dist Name & E-mail Address   Phone          Fax
 = ======= ======================  ==========    =========
 R GA 6    Gingrich, Newt           225-4501      225-4656
            georgia6@hr.house.gov
 D MI 14   Conyers Jr., John        225-5126      225-0072
            jconyers@hr.house.gov
 D CO 1    Schroeder, Patricia      225-4431      225-5842
 D TX 18   Jackson-Lee, Sheila      225-3816      225-3317
 D TN 6    Gordon, Bart             225-4231      225-6887



DRAFT LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM ALA PRESIDENT BETTY TUROCK

Librarians everywhere have for decades promoted a very simple
message: "READ."  They have  directed that message to literally
millions of children and adults in every corner of America because
they believe, as does the American Library Association (ALA), that
an informed population is the key to making Democracy -- the free
flow of ideas at the core of the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights -- work for everyone in our great nation.

Librarians and the American Library Association (ALA) take a back
seat to no profession or organization in safeguarding the nation's
children.  That's why the local library in cities and towns
nationwide is a designated "Safe Place."  That's why libraries
strongly believe that the current criminal laws against preying on
children or subjecting them to obscene material (as now solidly
defined by the Supreme Court) can and must be vigorously enforced.
And that's why no librarian worthy of the name will point any
child to obscene material on the Internet or anywhere else.

In the House's current version of telecommunications reform
legislation being negotiated with the Senate, however, librarians
and educators could be sentenced to up to two years in prison (and
fined up to $100,000) merely for using a computer system to
transmit "indecent" material in a manner that could result in it
inadvertently being viewed by a minor.  This means  -- depending
on how the vague and Constitutionally problematic word  "indecent"
is ultimately defined -- that librarians could go to jail for
helping an adult access many classic and prize-winning works of
modern fiction, or commentary about them, unless the computer
terminal on the receiving end of the transmission was locked away
from children.

Clearly, faced with the very real threat of new criminal
liability, and deep uncertainty as to what type of material might
trigger it, librarians and educators could well  be forced to
curtail or terminate their trail-blazing work to put Americans of
all ages on-line.  Small businesses, campus and other health
networks, even local governments seeking to use the Internet to
initiate a frank discussion of [local zoning regulation] everyday
information needs, all may find library facilities and librarian
expertise on the Internet unavailable to them.

Congress clearly does not intend to destroy the promise of the
Internet by forcing schools and libraries to abandon the "schools
without walls" programs, tele-medicine projects, and small
business promotion campaigns that they now nurture.  But, that is
exactly what will happen if new criminal penalties for potentially
positive uses of the Internet are adopted, or if the standard for
criminal liability is counterproductively and needlessly broad.

For all of these reasons, the ALA and librarians everywhere urge
Congress to do what they have exhorted the nation to do for
decades: READ the fine print of the telecommunications reform
legislation now before the House/ Senate Conference Committee and
reject the dangerously vague "indecency standard."  If material
"harmful to minors" on the Internet is the problem, then let's
address the problem.  If new criminal penalties are unavoidable,
then only the transmission of material "harmful to minors" should
be unlawful.

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ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the
American Library Association Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania
Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004.  Internet:
alawash@alawash.org; Phone: 202-628-8410; Fax: 202-628-8419.
Contributing to this issue: Adam M. Eisgrau and Claudette W.
Tennant; Editor: Lynne E. Bradley (leb@alawash.org).

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