Legal remedies to the CDA

Feb 7 21:22 UTC 1996

Indecency Litigation Statement


Internet "Indecency" Legislation: An Unconstitutional
Assault on Free Speech and Privacy Rights

February 7, 1996
Washington, DC

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) will participate as both
plaintiff and co-counsel in litigation to challenge the so-called
"Communications Decency Act." The lawsuit will be filed in Philadelphia
soon after the President signs the telecommunications bill containing the
Internet "indecency" provisions.  EPIC joins the American Civil Liberties
Union and more than a dozen other organizations in challenging this
ill-advised and unconstitutional attempt to impose governmental content
regulation on emerging global electronic media. 

The legislation's vague "indecency" standard will have an obvious impact
upon the free speech rights of millions of Americans who use computer
networks to receive and distribute information. Less apparent is the
assault on privacy rights that the legislation will engender. 

To avoid potential criminal liability under the "indecency" provision,
information providers would, in effect, be required to verify the
identities and ages of all recipients of material that might be deemed
inappropriate for children.  The new statutory regime would thus result in
the creation of "registration records" for tens of thousands of Internet
sites, containing detailed descriptions of information accessed by
particular recipients.  These records would be accessible to law
enforcement agencies and prosecutors investigating alleged violations of
the statute.  Such a regime constitutes a gross violation of Americans'
rights to access information privately and anonymously. 

Less than a year ago, the Supreme Court upheld the right to anonymous
speech in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission..  EPIC believes that the
Court's rationale in that case applies with even greater force to the
Internet "indecency" provisions.  The Court noted that

"The decision in favor of anonymity may be motivated by fear of economic
or official retaliation, by concern  about social ostracism, or merely by
a desire to preserve as much of one's privacy as possible. 

Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority.  It thus
exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First
Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation
-- and their ideas fromsuppression -- at the hand of an intolerant society."

According to David L. Sobel, Legal Counsel for EPIC, "Whether the millions
of individuals visiting sites on the Internet are seeking information on
teenage pregnancy, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, classic
works of literature or avant-garde poetry, they enjoy a Constitutional
right to do so privately and anonymously.  The Communications Decency Act
seeks to destroy that right."

EPIC is confident that upon review of the legislation and its impact upon
free speech and privacy rights in emerging electronic media, the courts
will invalidate the measure as fundamentally at odds with the
Constitution. 


http://epic.org/free_speech/censorship/