In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court has struck down the
Communications Decency Act.

83 responses total.

YES!

Didn't they already do this once before?  Or was that time unoffical or
something?

That was a ruling at the appeals court (lower) level.

This is great news.

Wahoo!  only one qualifier:  The net isn't exclusively the property of the
United States, so how could they regulate that?  It would just mean more
foreign porn sites and less domestic ones (and it would give parents a false
sense of security).  What good would it do?

They can regulate what gets housed on US servers, or put up by Americans,
assuming they can come up with a way to regulate that doesn't infringe on
constitutional rights.

This was actually a unanimous decision that the CDA was unconstitutional. 
The 7-2 thing was a disagreement on how unconstitutional it is.

 Good news!  The Court ideally shouldn't have considered foreign sites, 
just whether or not the law was constitutional.  Sounds like they did a 
good job.

I see 
(said the blind man to his deaf wife as he picked up his hammer and saw)
<bjorn ducks>

  One of the insidious things about the CDA was that it made punishable
  anything that "made available" to children "indecent" material, raising
  questions of whether ISPs could be punished for providing unrestricted
  internet access whether or not they had anything to do with providing
  "indecent" content..  Be glad that it's been struck down.

  re #2:  the "wasn't it struck down before" event you're thinking of
  was probably the injunction against its enforcement until the legal
  issues could be settled.

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the cda would have changed the united states 'beyond all recognition.'
 
now we need to work on getting that  give-your-crypto-keys-to-them crap
killed .

I was sure it would happen. We now have the same level of free spech as
the print media (newspapers and magazines.)

The key bank is a real issue that we might need to live with. That one
comes down to how do we identify a user. The key bank is one way. This is
driven by law enforcement's need to listen in on us. Ug.

Well, what the hell are we waiting for?!  Let's start complaining people!!

quote of the day - from CNN almanac
"The (Communications Decency Act) is a content-based regulation of speech. 
The vagueness of such a regulation raises special First Amendment
concerns because of its obvious chilling effect on free speech." 

      -- Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens 

i'll buy that quote. 
  
but i will not sell my crypto keys.

How would it have changed grex?  forced us to censor our cfs and party?  Or
worse?

CDA outlawed obscene and indecent language on the internet, even
including e-mail, and made providers liable, even if they had not
originated such content.  What that means is that probably only
moderated forums, where all material can be previewed and editted before
publication, would be safe.  In short, if CDA had been upheld in all its
parts, grex "as we know it today" would be impossible.

If a more limited form of CDA had been upheld, then certain parts of
grex would be at greater risk than other parts.  For instance, party,
due to its nearly instantaneous public nature, would be particularly at
risk.  If it were possible to have members sign an agreement that they
would hold grex blameless for anything they might post or read, then
"members only" conferencing might be possible.  If removal of offensive
material upon notification were an adequate defense, then un-moderated
conferencing might be possible, although the flavour would certainly be
damn different.  Grex might be able to offer e-mail, if e-mail were held
to be not subject to CDA.  If individual users were held accountable,
but grex were not, grex might have to acquire "legal proof" of a user's
identity.  That means (for instance) grex might have to set up a network
of agents around the country who could personally inspect user's
identity papers, and "ok" their participation on grex.  All of these
changes would obviously have a great impact on grex.  The exact nature
of that impact would depend on the exact interpretation of CDA that were
upheld by the courts, and its subsequent interpretation by law
enforcement agencies.  Grex is enough of a shoe-string operation,
however, that it is quite possible that even a risk that would be
tolerable to a larger operation (such as compuserve), would render grex
unviable.  It is also possible that even if the risks were technically
feasible, that the resulting changes to grex might drive away enough
members that grex might not survive.  So, while it is *possible* grex
might have survived, it was by no means a certain prospect.

Also, before we sit back and relax *too much*, I ought to mention that
the war is by no means over.  The administration is *still* quite keen
on passing some more limited form of CDA.

and probably forced us to get rid of or limit our completely open access.

Well then, let the protest continue - in a more exubrarant form.

I found it somewhat disturbing, although not unexpected, to see a quote from
somebody in the Clinton administration saying something like, "we supported
the law, but we expected it to be found unconstitutional."  Supporting
something and thinking the Constitution allows it is one thing.  Passing a
law while believing that that sort of law is outlawed by the Constitution
seems to me to be something quite different.

Unethical is what I could call it, especially seeing as how the
President, at least, has sworn an oath to uphold the constitution.
Supporting legislation one expects will be found unconstitutional does
not sound to me like upholding the constitution.

Pity others don't see it that way.  I get it.

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It seems to me that open, unmoderated forums that are not
subject to pre-screening are the very essence of free speech.
The Court agreed, fortunately. I am still indignant that the
Executive and Legislative branches were willing to sell out the
First Amendment so blithely.

"Shit" is offensive to many people, and inoffensive to others.  I'm thinking
that in practice decency laws would probably end up being enforced like
television and radio.

Woohooo!  3 cheers for your legal system - it actually got acase right for
once =)

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Yeah, I know that Valerie...I'm not that ignorant =)  We're talking about the
big cases and the ones that make news more so than the everyday case (or at
least I was meaning that, sorry for any misconceptions)...and you cannot blame
the world's perceptions of your judicial system or society when your media
so vehmently exposes such injustices - BLAME YOUR MEDIA AND YOUR COUNTRY'S
IDEALS - OF MAKING MONEY BEFORE JUSTICE AND EQUALITY.

Thisitem is now linked to the cyberpunk conference.  Join cyberpunk to discuss
the social implications of net censorship, encryption, the current evolution
(devolution of the WWW), crackers, v.s. hackers, software piracy, etc.

So, Mic, who do you blame for the general, if incorrect, worldwide perception
of Australians as Tilly wearing shrimp eating plains folk?  I've had quite
a bit of experience with people who have this misconception.

My perception of Australia was of being a country much like this one, only
a bit less crowded and perhaps a bit freer in most places.

Re #20: Rather than "thinking" the Constitution allows something which it
doesn't, it should still be possible to *find out* whether it does by
*reading* it. That's why it's written down. So we can READ it to find out what
it allows and forbids. Otherwise, what's the point?

Suppose we use our own crypto software anyways - without divulging the keys
- and perhaps "encrypt" the cryptogram with the Clipper chip? Are there enough
FBI agents to go after everyone who does this?

Senna, if you can translate -tjhat rather ignorant misconception of yoursNOT
THE WORLD's- of Australia into English, instead of your uneducated self's
vocabulary, I will gladly comment.

RE drew's comment.  Australia is certainly freer than America in many places,
but do not necessarily take this as a good thing always.  I think we, as a
nation-Australia-, are too free and it is detrimental///we have no pride in
our Australia -sorry, the vast majority do not and our welfare system is a
degrace and kindles that of a third world country persistently receiving
foreign grants.

[i love conferences where both senna and mic are present :-)]

I'm only an agorian at the moment, but that may increase:-)

Actually, Mic, you're misreading me... I have no impression of that.  My
impression of australians, which I'm free to change if ever I find other
evidence, is of a mostly coastal cosmopolitan culture with a large continent
at their backs.  As for the actual people, I really don't know.  (I should
point out that what the world usually sees of Australia, except during rare
race weekends and other international events, is Crocodile Dundee and the
Foster's beer comercials-- not exactl7y a shining example, Mic.)

While I'm hear, might I ask why you're so eager to attempt a fight over every
point that I make?  If you really have a problem with me, I suggest that you
take it to email.  

senna & mic please dont flood grex by exchanging emails :)
come on take it easy I was joking...

I dare say the world has a much greater, tolerable opinion of Australian than
a land inhabitated by self-proclaimed morons like yaself senna.

We are indeed a costal, cosmpolitan culture for the most part....a vast
continent scarcely inhabitated...geez, I have to give credit where credit is
due...you *did* provide one view (in a lifetime) which was accurate...now,
who did you steal the view from? :-)

Contrary to may Americans, Crocodile Dundee was not meant to protrary
Australia accurately and it certainly didn't...as all movies intentions are,
it's prime concern was to make money and it certainly made alot of it:-)

Jeez, where did you get such a rash inclination that I'm eager to attempt
fighting you over every point you make?  You're totally misguided on dat one
- I just wub you man =)

Take it to private e-mail?  Do you have a guilt conscience Mr Senna?  Or maybe
the intelligence level of a bark tree?  ...hmmm, after much thought, I'd have
to go with the latter...too much a** whipping and bark sniffing for you.

dat was supposed to be wiping a**

senna, you must be flustering me too much...kewl it pulease =)

"How to Win Friends and Influence People," by mic.  :)

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss