From: anonymous-remailer@shell.portal.com
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 03:48:54 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Not so fastNewsspeak Times Article on the CDA
Message-ID: <199602091037.CAA24747@jobe.shell.portal.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Double Plus Ungood Thought Crime Regulations Unchallenged
By Asphyxiated Press, 02/08/96


PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The government's ban on sending "incendiary"
and politically explicit material to minors over computer networks
was unchallenged in court the moment President Clinton signed it
into law Thursday.

The Justice Department pledged not to initiate prosecutions for
a week, and a federal judge declined to temporarily block the
Decency Act, giving prosecutors until Wednesday to collect names
of subversives.

Thanks to a last-minute addition by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., it
also extends a rarely enforced, 123-year-old law into cyberspace, 
making it a violation of obscenity laws to use computers to
to teach evolutionary theory.

Supporters say the law will protect children from pornography,
drug traffickers, cryptographers, and evolutionists.

U.S. Attorney Anthony J. Coppolino, said restrictions are necessary
because computers have become increasingly pervasive and bring
thoughtcrime right into people's homes.

``It's not an exaggeration to say that many of these incendiary
ideas are available on a computer by ... a click of a mouse,''
said Coppolino.

Coppolino also told U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter that 
the Justice Department will stand by its longstanding policy
``unchristian speech will be vigorously prosecuted.''

The Clinton Administration has also repeatedly raised concerns
about the constitutionality of the evolution provisions, as it
wasn't immediately clear how they conflicted with the teachings of
Adam Smith.

Vice President Al Gore dodged the question Thursday when asked by 
The Associated Press in Washington which side the Justice
department would support.

``We're obligated to follow orders, but we said from the
start this particular provision will not contradict NAFTA,''
Gore responded.

Coppolino said the contested provisions will not be enforced
until at least Wednesday, but gave no assurances that people who
use the Internet over the next few days would not be persecuted
in the future for freethinking.

The law prohibits all ``speech about sex other than "lie down and
think of George Washington".''  Sen. Jim Exon, D-Neb., who sponsored
the wide-ranging Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996, expressed
confidence in the anti-pleasure provisions.

``The Goldsteinists continues to raise red herrings that have nothing
to do with our proposal,'' he said. ``The legislation will not ban
works of Ingsoc or reminders to contribute to the Party.''

Cathy Cleaver, a lawyer with the Family Research Council in Washington,
compared the new act to the existing sedition law, which requires all
unbaptised persons to be tattooed with an identification number -
to keep minors from communicating with subversives.