From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 12:38:35 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: FW: Communications Decency Act (hee-hee)
Message-ID: <ad5fa80801021004bde5@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



WARNING: If you are under 18, do not read or download this message! Please
delete this message NOW and do not  either archive it or pass it on. You
have been warned, and I can take no further responsibility for your
actions. It has become necessary under the Communications Decency Act to
make this warning. Regrettably, my political views and financial condition
make me a potential target for prosecutors seeking to "set an example" as
well as to collect the $500,000 penalties for proving a violation of the
CDA. Hence my caution. Furthermore, quoted material may also contain
putatively indecent material, as the CDA makes much of ordinary speech a
felony if communicated by means of computer, so censorship of certain words
and ideas may be necessary.


At 2:54 AM 3/4/96, blanc wrote:

>Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert, contributes this to the debate:

>>From now on, whenever I get the urge to use an offensive word in e-mail I
>will substitute the name of an offensive politician.  I urge you to do
>the same.
>
>The beauty of this approach is that they can't easily ban these new
>naughty words without changing their own names.  I know I could get in
>trouble for suggesting such a thing, but I don't give a [exonized]
>what they think.  And if they don't like it they can come over here and
>[exonized].

This is of course an old idea. Regrettably, the CDA is not based on a
simple bright line test invovling the "Seven [exonized] Words,"
immortalized in the FCC--Carlin--Pacifica case. Rather, "indecent" is
broadly interpreted to mean essentially whatever a prosecutor can convince
a panel of bluenosed citizens is indecent.

In particular, the examples Blanc includes, which I have exonized to
protect myself from having to pay up to $500,000 in fines (and wouldn't you
guess that they'd love to make an example out of me...and collect from
me!), are still likely to be considered "indecent," as the allusions about
what Gingrich can do are still clear.

Welcome to the Fourth Reich.

--Alan Smithee, for obvious reasons

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."