From: "Declan B. McCullagh" <declan+@CMU.EDU>
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 09:38:20 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: US calls for measures against Internet porn
In-Reply-To: <199601030549.VAA11513@infinity.c2.org>
Message-ID: <ckufKbm00YUrM5yBUm@andrew.cmu.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 2-Jan-96 Re: US calls for measures
a.. by sameer@c2.org 
>         Just to offer another story of the cluelessness of some
> people: I've been receiving a number of complaints about one of my
> users who has gotten into a flamewar on Usenet. They claim that
> flaming is a violation of FCC regulations. (Maybe eventually it will
> be.. sigh.)

This apparently is becoming a common tactic among would-be censors. One
example involving a web site and complainants from Carnegie Mellon
University and the University of Pittsburgh is at:
   
    http://joc.mit.edu/attack.html

And more on Compuserve... Excepts from today's Washington Post:

   BERLIN, Jan. 2 -- German authorities say the CompuServe on-line
   service decided on its own which sexually explicit Internet forums to
   ban its 4 million customers from viewing.
   
   In addition, prosecutors reiterated today that they never explicitly
   threatened CompuServe Inc. with criminal charges.
   
   The statements appear to conflict with CompuServe's explanation last
   Thursday of why it blocked access to 200 newsgroups. But a CompuServe
   spokeswoman repeated the company's initial explanation today, saying
   German authorities specified which newsgroups should be banned...
   
   Munich senior public prosecutor Manfred Wick said today that his
   office did not provide CompuServe any such list as part of its
   investigation of child pornography on the Internet. "We did not make
   any stipulations. It was the decision of CompuServe alone," he said.

-Declan