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Action ALERTS
CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE US COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT (S. 314/H.R. 1004)
(Note this is not the electronic "defeat S314" petition)
PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT
DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE AFTER MAY 1, 1995
DO NOT REPRODUCE THIS ALERT IN NON-POLITICAL FORUMS
Distributed by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (vtw@vtw.org)
Mar. 17, 1995-----
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WHAT YOU CAN DO (IN ONLY TWO MINUTES)
1. Contact Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD, Commerce Committee Chairman), Sen. J.J. Exon (D-NE, sponsor of the bill), and Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR, Chairman, Communications Subcommittee).
Note: although contacting your own Senators is important, these members hold the keys at this point in time. If you want to contact your own Senators, that's great, but between now and Thursday Pressler, Exon and Packwood are the ones to focus on.
Time is of the essence: *Phone calls* are best, faxes only partially effective, email has the least impact.
P ST Name and Address Phone Fax
= == ======================== ============== ==============
R SD Pressler, Larry 1-202-224-5842 1-202-224-1259*
243 RSOB larry_pressler@pressler.senate.gov
Washington, D.C. 20510
*Note this is the Senate Commercommittee's fax machine
D NE Exon, J. J. 1-202-224-4224 1-202-224-5213
528 HSOB
Washington, D.C. 20510
R OR Packwood, Robert 1-202-224-5244 1-202-228-3576
259 RSOB
Washington, D.C. 20510
Urge them to keep S.314 from being incorporated into telecommunications reform legislation and to support Senator Leahy's efforts to explore alternatives to the Exon bill. Follow the communique at the bottom if you need to.2. Feel free to use the following sample communique:
I'm a resident of _______. Please support Senator Leahy's efforts to explore alternatives to S. 314. Please keep S. 314 out of the telecommunications reform bill, and remove S. 314 from the fast track.See below for a brief description of Leahy's initiative. His letter to CDT is in the VTW gopher.
Thanks.
Concern over S.314 is not limited to the U.S. Among many international expressions of support, two have stood out in the first two weeks. EF-Australia is a member of the growing coalition, and IndiaNet has circulated our alert widely. If you are not a citizen of the United States you can still express your concern. A sample message to Senator Pressler follows:
Dear Senator Pressler: The Exon bill will cripple the U.S. portion of the Internet and thereby devastate the growing global information community. International commerce and social and political cooperation will suffer greatly. I urge you to refrain from incorporating S.314 into any telecommunications reform legislation and to support Senator's Leahy initiatives to explore alternatives to S314.
Both US citizens and non-US citizens should remember to be polite when speaking to legislators, even their own.
3. DON'T FORGET TO DROP A NOTE TO VTW@VTW.ORG to tell us who you contacted.
(See below for FTN to Internet emailing instructions.) We'll tally the results and feed them back to all participating organizations. It's crucial we have this feedback, even if you just got a form letter, or a "thank you" to your phone call.
Please, when you report back, tell us what state you are in! This will help us track constituent calls, which are the most effective.
4. Feel good about yourself. You've just participated in democracy without leaving your seat.
5. (Extra bonus activism) Pass this alert to your friends, especially if they're in South Dakota, Nebraska, or Oregon. These states need to have as much constituent contact with their Senators as possible.
Also, you might send a thank-you note to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) for his continuing efforts on behalf of free speech and the free flow of information in cyberspace. He can be reached at:
P ST Name and Address Phone Fax
= == ======================== ============== ==============
D VT Leahy, Patrick J. 1-202-224-4242 1-202-224-3595
433 RSOB senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
Washington, D.C. 20510
Don't forget to Cc:
vtw@vtw.og
on your mail to him, so we can tally the response.Return to the Table of Contents
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Dear Net Citizens:
Legislation has been introduced before the Senate which would severely restrict your freedom of speech, halt the free flow of information on the net, and require all telecommunications carriers to censor your public and private communications.
The "Communications Decency Act of 1995" (S. 314), introduced in early February by Senators Exon (D-NE) and Gorton (R-WA), would place substantial criminal liability on telecommunications carriers (including traditional telephone networks, Internet service providers, commercial online services such as America Online and Compuserve, and independent BBS's) whenever their networks are used to transmit any material which is deemed indecent or harassing. In order to avoid these penalties, carriers would be forced to restrict the activities of their subscribers and censor all public and private communications.
We must act quickly to stop the progress of S. 314. The bill may soon be incorporated into Senate telecommunications reform legislation, which is currently being drafted by the Senate Commerce Committee. The telecommunications reform bill may be introduced as early as mid March, and is expected to be considered on a fast track. If S. 314 is included in this bill, it will be extremely difficult to change or remove and could pass quickly.
We are asking you to join us in urging key members of the Senate to prevent S. 314 from being included in Senate telecommunications reform measures and to hold open, public hearings on the issue.
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CURRENT STATUS OF S. 314/H.R. 1004
The bill was introduced on February 1, 1995 by Senators Exon (D-NE) and Gorton (R-WA). It is currently pending before the Senate Commerce Committee (chaired by Senator Pressler (R-SD)).
No committee action has been scheduled as of March 9, 1995.
The telecommunications reform bill is scheduled for hearing starting March 21, 1995. It is possible that S. 314 will be folded into the bill during markup next week.
H.R. 1004 (worded the same as S. 314) was introduced on February 21, 1995 in the House by Representative Johnson (SD) and has been referred to the House Commerce and Judiciary committees.
No committee actions in the House have been scheduled as of March 17, 1995.
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S. 314 would expand current law restricting indecency and harassment on telephone services to all telecommunications providers and expand criminal liability to all content carried by all forms of telecommunications networks. The bill would amend Section 223 of the Communications Act (47 U.S.C. 223), which requires carriers to take steps to prevent minors from gaining access to indecent audiotext and criminalizes harassment accomplished over interstate telephone lines.
If enacted, S. 314 would compel service providers to severely restrict your online activities. Your access to email, discussion lists, usenet, the world wide web, gopher, and ftp archives would be substantially reduced or cut off entirely. The bill would also force providers to closely monitor and pre-screen your electronic mail, and refuse to transmit any message or other content which may be considered to be indecent.
This bill poses a significant threat to freedom of speech and the free flow of information in cyberspace. The bill also raises fundamental questions about the right of government to control content on communications networks, as well as the locus of liability for content carried in these new communications media.
Recently, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has requested the Center for Democracy and Technology's Public Interest/Industry working group IWG (Interactive Working Group) to explore other solutions to the problems that S. 314 attempts to solve. The working group must be allowed to examine current legislation and explore technical alternatives that are consistent with the First Amendment and the free flow of information.
We've received over 400 messages in two weeks, with our log showing over 700 letters, faxes, phone calls, and email messages (many people contacted more than one Senator. At least two respondents wrote all 19 members of the committee!) Of course many more people have probably contacted Congress without sending that note to VTW.
Almost 200 messages went to Pressler, who may be getting the point. His staff told one caller, "Why are you calling us? It's Exon's bill!" (This is why phone calls to Pressler are so important.)
One citizen wrote to Senator Gorton, a co-sponsor:
"I, frankly, am amazed at the audacity of your proposed bill. We are not children sir, nor do we need your misplaced guidance in raising our children!"
"While I am pleased, being an enthusiastic supporter of anti-harassment legislation, with many of the provisions of this bill, I am frankly astounded and appalled with others."
"A few years ago, a tanker laden with a crude, noxious substance ran aground in the virginal territories of the Alaskan coastline. It poisoned the land and sea for many miles around.... We are now faced with another 'Exon Valdez'... a vehicle filled with crude legislation, currently at risk of running ashore on our pristine rights."
"At a time when communications between ordinary citizens has been all but drowned out by the barrage of mass media, online communication has become the last bastion of real citizen deliberation and has become the "public square" so to speak, of the nation. This bill would destroy this great experiment in the rejuvenation of grassroots democracy. Please do all you can to prevent its passage."
We are encouraged by the success so far of the campaign, and hope that you take the time to participate at this crucial time.
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WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BILL? (URL INCLUDED)
The Voters Telecommunications Watch has set up a gopher page where you can get a copy of the bill (including analyses by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Messaging Association, and others). Here's the URL:
WWW URL: gopher://gopher.panix.com/11/vtw/exon/
Gopher command : gopher -p 1/vtw/exon gopher.panix.com
If you have difficulty getting to this gopher page, or if you don't have access to Mosaic/gopher, drop a note to:
BBS Network Users:
You can FREQ the files from the EFF BBS, 1:109/1108, 1-202-861-1224. The "magicword" for a list of relevant files is S314. You do NOT have to be nodelisted to get the files, or in any particular network. Just create a dummy nodelist entry with our phone number if you need to do so. Those in QWK nets or otherwise not able to File REQuest can download the files manually from the BBS, in the ALERTS file area. Feel free to login as ANONYMOUS, password GUEST to bypass newuser questionnaires.
To send mail to vtw@vtw.org from FidoNet or other FTN systems, create a netmail message to your local UUCP host. Search the nodelist for the GUUCP flag, and use the address of that system:
To: UUCP, [GUUCP system address here. "To" name MUST be UUCP]
From: [you]
Subject: S.314
________________________________________________________________
To: vtw@vtw.org
[Message starts here on 3rd line. The second "To:" line with the internet email address MUST be the first line of the message body, and the blank line following that is REQUIRED. Mail will not be delivered by the gateways without it.]
To email one of the Senators in the list above, just put the Senator's email address in place of "vtw@vtw.org" in the above example.
If you are unsure whether your FTN has an Internet gateway, or suspect it may use something other than a GUUCP nodelist flag, ask your network coordinators.
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WHERE WILL I LEARN ABOUT UPDATES TO THIS ALERT? We will post updates to this alert in three places:
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CURRENT LIST OF PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS
At this time, the following organizations have signed onto this campaign and are receiving the legislative feedback that VTW is compiling:
Note that the Voters Telecommunications Watch does not speak for these organizations. Any opinions contained herein are those of the author, and not necessarily endorsed by participating organizations.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), infoaclu@aclu.org
American Communication Association (ACA),
comminfo@cavern.uark.edu
Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), ask@cdt.org
Center for Public Representation (CPR), mgpritch@facstaff.wisc.edu
Computer Communicators Association (CCA), community@pigpen.demon.co.uk
Computing Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), cpsr@cpsr.org
CyberQueer Lounge, tomh@cyberzine.org
(Note that the DC-based EFF has no local chapters)
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), ask@eff.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation-Austin (EFF-Austin), eff-austin@tic.com
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), efa-info@efa.org.au
Electronic Frontiers Houston (EFH), efh@efh.org
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), info@epic.org
Florida Coalition Against Censorship (FCAC), PIPKING@mail.firn.edu
Hands Off! the Net petition drive, slowdog@wookie.net
National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), ncac@netcom.com
National Libertarian Party (NLP), lphq@access.digex.net
National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN), info@nptn.org
National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981 AFL-CIO), kip@world.std.com
People for the American Way (PFAW), jlessern@reach.com
Society for Electronic Access (SEA), sea@sea.org
Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW), vtw@vtw.org
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Let's stop these threats to the cyberspace before they spread. Please send us your contribution -- $100, $50, $20, whatever you feel comfortable giving -- to help us continue this important work. Send your donation to:
Cyberspace Defense Fund Electronic Frontier Foundation 1667 K Street, NW, Suite 801 Washington DC 20006 USA
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and your contribution is 100% tax deductible. Thank you so much for your help!
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Nominations for the Pioneer Awards were carried out over several national and international computer-communication systems. from the fall of 1994 to February 1995. A panel of six judges selected the winners from these nominations.
Anita Borg is the founder and keeper of Systers, an electronic mailing list for women in computer science. As the result of Borg's efforts, her list has become a major force for increasing the numbers and improving the position of women in the computer science field. Although she is also known for a number of technical contributions to the field of computer science in the areas of fault tolerant operating systems and cache performance analysis, she is particularly well-known among women in computing for the Systers list. Prior to her development of the Systers list, women in this field had tended to be physically isolated from each other and rarely able to find even a few role models or others with whom to share common experiences. Systers has done more to increase communication among women in computer science than any other available forum.
Willis Ware, now an emeritus staff member at the RAND corporation in Santa Monica, California, has been at the forefront of computer-privacy issues for decades. In 1972, he was appointed Chairman of the DHEW Secretary's Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems, which issued the landmark report, "Records, Computers, and the Rights of Citizens." This report provided the intellectual foundation for the Federal Privacy Act of 1974. In June 1975, he was appointed by President Ford to the Privacy Protection Study Commission created by the Privacy Act of 1974 and served as vice chairman. The Commission made a study of data banks, automated data-processing programs, and information systems of governmental, regional, and private organizations and reported its findings to President Carter and the Congress on June 12, 1977. This report remains the most extensive examination of private sector record-keeping practices. Throughout his career, Ware has been both prescient and outspoken on public-policy issues relating to computers and privacy; he has played a key role in bringing privacy concerns to the forefront of public policy.
For further information, contact Mike Godwin at 202-861-7700 or mnemonic@eff.org.
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A Computer programmer, activist, and editor for Spunk Press in Scotland and who conducts seminars on progressive activism and Internet basics, was recently targetted in the British press, and associated with the online anarchists under investigation. A highly questionable article in the UK Sunday Times by Adrian Levy and Ian Burrell (Mar. 5) accused the Spunk editor (who prefers not to be named again due to negative publicity) of encouraging the use of computer technology for organizing violent and illegal acts, as part of an online terrorist coalition, at an "anarchist campaign" last October (described by attendees rather as a conference on anarchist politics and online activism).
However, the Levy/Burrell article is both replete with errors (it refers in one place to FTP archive directories "booby trapped with viruses that attack the computers of unauthorised intruders" - an impossibility, as any experienced Internet user would know) and remarkably biased (the article alleges that supposed 'anarchy files' encourage students to "take part in dirty protests and riots.") Additionally it makes many wild and highly unrealistic accusations of global anarchist conspiracy (led by "an intelligent and well-informed girl", a British student, according to another similar report.) No relevant evidence or sources are cited.
Spunk "maintains an archive of anarchist material at umich [the U. of Michican anonymous FTP site] and other sites. It includes historical documents, articles by the likes of Chomsky & Bookchin, the text of various anarchist magazines and, contrary to what the Sunday Times said, nothing about bomb-making or other [seditious material]", Mitzi Waltz, a technology writer and US member of Spunk, told EFF, adding that another member of the Spunk collective, in Italy, suffered a police raid on his political discussion BBS, BITS Against the Empire, Waltz disagreed vehemently with the Sunday Times article: "I have met [the Spunk editor] and he's about the furthest thing from a terrorist you can imagine. I was at the conference referred to [in the Sunday Times article] also last fall in London. [We] led workshops on using the Internet for communications and networking. Basic stuff, like 'what's a BBS?'..."
Others involved with Spunk Press indicate that a previous article in the UK trade magazine Computing also attacked Spunk, possibly slanderously. Recently, Computing was inundated with criticism of its report. These articles appear to have been the inspiration for a series of similar, and even further removed from reality, mainstream press reports in Italy, which compare the events to the raid on BITS Against the Empire.
BITS Against the Empire, a computer bulletin board system run by Clinamen, (a Rovereto, Italy social center) and providing communications services to users via Internet, Cybernet and FidoNet, was seized along with printed material and disks during a Feb. 28 police search of Clinamen. The homes of a number of people associated with Clinamen were also raided that morning by the Carabinieri Anti-Crime Special Operations Group, who seized books, computers, diskettes, even diaries. Some of those raided are allegedly associated with the Italian anarchist movement. Only one, the sysop, Luciano Paccagnella, is directly associated with the BITS BBS.
To date, only some of the seized materials have been returned, and the BBS itself, other computers, and diskettes are still being held for further investigation. No one has been arrested, but the individuals raided have been formally charged with terroristic subversion crimes, which carry severe penalities: 7-15 years in prison. Paccagnella expresses skepticism regarding the likelihood that authorities really want him in prison for 15 years, reasoning he and the others charged are probably expected to be intimidated into plea-bargaining. "What they really want is clearly to scare us," he said.
A Clinamen press release noted wryly: "According to the authorities, the bulletin board's activities in pursuit of free communication and counter- information represent a danger to the democratic order...Clearly nobody has explained to them that hard disks and diskettes can be copied in a matter of minutes. Meanwhile, those facing prosecution, as well as the hundreds users of BITS Against the Empire BBS, must continue to wait as police computer experts work to uncover not only the DOS 'copy' command, but also that very dangerous information - from publicly available electronic journals, articles and academic essays on the social use of new technology, to publicly accessible electronic discussion groups - which has inspired the charge of subversive association with terrorist intent."
The BITS BBS carried a file index of materials available from the Spunk archive (though not the files themselves), as well as back issues of Computer underground Digest (for which EFF itself is the main archive site), and other political and non-political text material (no software). It is currently unconfirmed whether there is a direct link between the BITS raid, the Scottish BBS raid, the apparent mainstream media campaign against the Spunk Press Collective, or the earlier Italian "BBS crackdown" (which was targetted, ostensibly at least, at software pirates, though a few victims of the raids suggest that the crackdown was entirely politically motivated.) Paccagnella doubts there is any official connection between these events.
Those concerned about the Italian raids can send messages of support or requests for updates to Luciano Paccagnella at:
Internet: lpaccagn@risc1.gelso.unitn.itThis news is very disconcerting, particularly given the recent law passed in the UK greatly restricting Britons' rights of assembly, not to mention other Parliament actions to negate the right of silence at arrest and broaden police search and seizure authority, as well as statements by UK Minister of Parliament Chris Smith that the "findings" of the Scotland Yard investigation into alleged online anarchist "terrorists" shows "the need for international agreements to ban groups preaching violence from the information superhighway", as the Sunday Times article triumphantly paraphrased. MP Smith is also on record as supporting a ban on public use of encryption, unless it is "escrowed" so that government agents can decode encrypted messages and files, likely due to international lobbying efforts on the part of the US Administration to convince European and other governments to attempt to retard private-sector encryption market growth and to embrace Clipper-like surveillance schemes.
Bitnet: lpaccag@itncisti
European Counter Network: Luc Pac, 45:1917/2.1
Cybernet: Luc Pac, 65:1400/6 (currently down)
Fidonet: Luc Pac, 2:333/412 (currently down)
When governments cannot distinguish between a socio-political philosophy denying governmental authoritarianism and actual conspiracy to commit terrorist crimes, no one's intellectual freedom is safe.
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This meeting will be in Burlingame on March 31, 1995, at 7:30PM. Our meeting place is in the same hotel as the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference, on the evening of the last day of the conference, with their gracious assistance:
Richard Horning will speak on the recent Church of Scientology court case, and the liability of system operators and communications providers for the speech of their users. Richard is a partner at Horning, Janin & Harvey of San Francisco, and is representing Tom Klemesrud, the BBS operator who was recently sued (with Netcom) by the Church of Scientology. The case highlights several important issues including anonymity; the right to dissent and criticize; how intellectual property protection is balanced with freedom of speech and association; personal liability for online speech; liability for the carriage of online speech; and the duty (or lack thereof) of communications carriers to terminate controversial speech, or the access of controversial speakers, upon request.
Grand Ballroom
San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel
Burlingame, CA
+1 415 692 9100
Drive US 101, exit East at Millbrae, turn right on Old Bayshore.
John Barlow will also speak on the sovereignty of Cyberspace. John is a professional Cognitive Dissident, co-founder of EFF, and frequent commentator on Electronic Frontier and intellectual property issues. It may well be that cyberspace is inherently a sovereign region, and that those who do business there and interact socially in that environment would do better to recognize it as such. If cyberspace were to declare its independence from all terrestrial governments, how would they respond, how would we defend ourselves, and who would be authorized to make such a declaration?
John will have just returned from Singapore, where he spoke about freedom of expression in digital media, at the invitation of the Government of Singapore. Singapore is one terrestrial power that's been exerting extravagant control over its corner of cyberspace.
There will be plenty of time for general and specific questions, issues, discussion, meeting people, and socializing with frontier- minded folks.
To learn about future monthly BayFF meetings, send email to listserv@eff.org whose first text line is subscribe BayFF .
We hope to see you on Friday the 31st!
John Gilmore
Jane Metcalfe
Denise Caruso
(Bay Area members of the EFF Board)
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If you know of an event of some sort that should be listed here, please send info about it to Stanton McCandlish (mech@eff.org)
The latest full version of this calendar, which includes material for later in the year as well as the next couple of months, is available from:
Updated: Feb. Mar. 19, 1995
ftp: ftp.eff.org, /pub/EFF/calendar.eff
gopher: gopher.eff.org, 1/EFF, calendar.eff
../../../../../../wwweff_b.org/pub/eff/calendar.eff
Important changes: Added much new material, but most importantly corrected the eddress for CFP95 info. Added March EFF SF Bay-area meeting! Corrected ETHICOMP date.
1995
Mar. 19-
23 - SuperComm95 and the International Communications Assoc. Expo.;
Anaheim, Calif. General communications conference; "Internet"
appears in the titles of most of the sessions and presentations.
Contact: 1-800-424-5249 or 1-800-422-4636 (voice, US-only), or
+1 708 940 5249 (elsewhere).
Mar. 23 * Practicing Multimedia-Based Computer Law in Our Rapidly Changing
Cyberspace; Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC.
Includes a panel featuring EFF Chair and Sr. Policy Fellow David
Johnson
- Commerce & Banking on the Information Superhighway; Chicago.
Speakers include Tim Jones (Mondex CEO). I'd be surprised if
David Chaum (DigiCash) won't be there too. Warning: This one
costs a fortune - $1,195 registration fee.
Contact: +1 312 540 3010 (voice), +1 312 540 3015 (fax)
Mar. 24 * EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow speaking at the Microsoft
Library, Microsoft "Campus", Redmond, Wash., 1:00pm PT.
Mar. 25 * Electronic Frontiers Houston Meeting; Ramada Hotel Galeria,
Houston, Texas. Speakers include state Rep. Scott Hochberg,
Ed Cavazos esq. (EFH), and Steve Nuchia (EFH). Topics:
Cyberspace and the law, and bill to make Texas legislative info
avialable via Internet. Meeting open to members and non-members.
Contact: +1 713 250 5436 (voice)
Email: efh@blackbox.com
Mar. 27 * Cyberspace: Doing Business On The New Frontier; NCB Auditorium,
71 Science Park Dr., Singapore 0512. Keynote address by John
Perry Barlow (EFF co-founder). Sponsored by Singapore Computer
Society Internet SIG, Singapore Telecom, and NCB.
Email: Marvin Tay Eng Sin (marv@iti.gov.sg)
Mar. 27-
30 - Geographic Information Systems '95, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Contact: +1 604 688 0188 (voice), +1 604 688 1573 (fax)
Email: gis@unixg.ubc.ca
Mar. 28 * Digital Libraries Conference, Singapore, 2:15 PM
Featured speakers include EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow.
Mar. 28-
31 * 5th Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy (CFP95), Burlingame
/Palo Alto, Calif. Sponsored by the Assoc. of Computing Machinery
Featured speakers include EFF's Esther Dyson & Mike Godwin, plus
Roger Wilkins of George Mason U., John Morgridge of Cisco Systems,
Margaret Jane Radin of Stanford, Willis Ware of of NAE, IEEE &
AAAS, Phil Agre of UCSD, Stuart Baker ex- of NSA, David Banisar
of EPIC, Chris Casey of Sen. Kennedy's office, Michael Froomkin
of U. Miami, Phil Karn of Qualcomm, Jamie Love of TAP, Brock
Meeks of _Inter@ctive_Week_ and _Cyberwire_Dispatch_, Lance Rose
author of _SysLaw_, Dick Sclove of Loka Inst., Brad Templeton of
ClariNet, Ross Stapleton-Gray of TeleDiplomacy, Glenn Tenney of
Fantasia Systems, Kim Taylor-Thompson of Stanford U., Alan Westin
of Columbia U., Mitch Ratcliffe of _Digital_Media_, Matt Blaze
of AT&T Bell Labs, Kent Walker Asst. US Atty. of the Dept. of
Justice, David Smith of EFF-Austin, Christine Harbs of Privacy
Rights Clearinghouse, Peter Harter of NPTN, Barbara Simons of the
US ACM, Roger Clark of Australian Nat'l. U., and many others.
See also Apr. 1, below.
Contact: Carey Heckman, +1 415 725 7788, fax: +1 415 725 1861,
Email: info.cfp95@forsythe.stanford.edu
WWW: http://www-techlaw.stanford.edu/CFP95.html
Gopher: www-techlaw.stanford.edu, "CFP95" menu item
FTP: www-techlaw.standord.edu, /CFP95
Mar. 28-
30 - ETHICOMP95 - Int'l. Conf. on the Ethical Issues of Using Information
Technology; DeMontfort U., Leicester UK.
Contact: Simon Rogerson, +44 533 577475, +44 533 541891 (fax)
Email: srog@dmu.ac.uk
Mar. 30-
31 * 10th BILETA Conference: Electronic Communications; Strathclyde
U. Business School, Glasgow, Scotland. Sponsored by British
and Irish Legal Education and Technology Association, CTI Law
Technology Centre, U. of Warwick, and U of Strathclyde Centre for
Law, Computers & Technolog. The conf. "promotes the integral
treatment of information technology law and the applications of
technology in legal education and practice." Speakers include:
Lord Hope (Pres., Scot. Court of Sessions), Henry Perritt (of
Villanova U., and EFF Policy Fellow), Tom Bruce (Cornell U.
Legal Information Inst.), Diana Faber (Law Commission), Scott
Taylor (U. of New Mex.), Peter Wahlgren (Stockholm U.), + others.
Contact: +44 1203 523294 (voice)
Email: andyt@themis.law.warwick.ac.uk
Mar. 31 * "BayFF" Bay-Area EFF Meeting, Grand Ballroom, San Francisco
Airport Marriott Hotel, Burlingame, CA, 7:30pm, in conjuction
with CFP'95. Featured speakers include John Gilmore & John
Perry Barlow (2 EFF co-founders). Other EFF board & staff may
also attend. Meeting open to all members and interested
parties. Topics: crypto export, CoS and sysop liability,
sovereignty of cyberspace.
Contact: +1 415 692 9100 (hotel, voice)
Mar. 31-
Apr. ? * Techshow95 (aka LegalTech); Chicago, Illinois. Sponsored by
the Am. Bar Assoc's Law Practice Managment Section and the
Chicago-Kent College of Law. Features a presentation by David
Johnson (EFF) & Fred Bartlit titled "Vision of the Future".
Apr. 1 - Privacy Advocates meeting, in conjunction with CFP (see above);
Burlingame, Calif.
Contact: Rober E. Smith of _Privacy_Journal, +1 401 274 7861
Apr. 1-
2 - RoboFest VI; City Coliseum, Austin, Texas.
Sponsored by the Austin Robot Group, et al. Will feature Internet
demos by EFF-Austin (who need a large number of volunteers to help
run the event.) Sharir Dance Co. will also be featured.
Contact: +1 512 288 9135 (voice)
Email: roboho@io.com (event info)
Email: holly@eden.com (to volunteer)
Apr. 2-
5 - 12th Ann. Information Systems & Security Conf. & Expo: Learning
from Each Other; Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Sponsored by ISSA. Speakers include: Gale Warshawsky (LLNL)
Charles Blauner (BellCore), Bart Burron (Auditor General
Canada), many others.
Contact: +1 708 699 6441 (voice), +1 708 699 6369 (fax)
Email: issa@mcs.com
Apr. 3-
5 - WebEdge: The Macintosh WWW Developers Conference; Apple Computer
Assistance Center, Austin, Texas. A pre-event mixer is scheduled
for Apr. 2.
Contact: +1 512 326 8222
Email: conference@gomedia.com
WWW: http://www.uwtc.washington.edu/MWDC/
Apr. 5 - Deadline for registering for Apr. 25 IBM security conference.
Apr. 5-
7 * UCLA Multimedia Roundtable; UCLA, Los Angeles, Calif.
Featured speakers include Denise Caruso (EFF board of directors).
- National Net '95 (Net'95), Loews L'Enfant Plaza Hotel, Washington
DC; sponsored by Educom, ALA, ARL, CAUSE, CNI, CSN, CRA, CREN,
FARNET, ISoc, NASULGC. Featured speakers: Ron Brown (US Sec'y.
of Commerce), Richard McCormick (US West), Molly Broad (CSU),
Larry Irving (NTIA), Andrew Blau (Benton Found.), Steve Cisler
(Apple), Marty Tennebaum (EIT/CommerceNet), Peter Lyman, Marc
Rotenberg (EPIC/PI), Brock Meeks (_Inter@ctive_Week_, _Cyberwire_
_Dispatch_), Bob Gellman (ex- of Capitol Hill staff), Barry
Steinhardt (ACLU) + others. Sessions on the underprivileged & the
NII, privacy net surveillance, network challenges for business,
int. property.
Contact: Elizabeth Bernhart, +1 202 872 4200 (voice),
+1 202 872 4318 (fax)
Email: net95@educom.edu
Apr. 5-
8 - Global Village Schools National Conference; Atlanta, Georgia USA.
Speakers include educators, computer engineers, state officials.
Focus will be on tele-education and the educational role of the
Internet.
Contact: +1 405 325 1567 (voice), +1 405 325 1824 (fax)
Email: gvs@uoknor.edu
Apr. 7 * Multimedia Round Table; Ritz Carleton Hotel, Marina del Rey,
Calif. Featured speakers include EFF co-founder John Perry
Barlow (10:30am PT).
Apr. 8 * Mayo Conference on Telemedicine; Rochester MN
Featured speakers include EFF-co-founder John Perry Barlow (9:00am)
Apr. 10 * EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow speaking engagement at Harvard
Law School; Cambridge, Mass., 5:00pm ET
Apr. 10-
12 - Coalition for Networked Information Task Force Spring Meeting,
+ CNI/AAUP Joint Initiative Workshop on University Presses in the
Networked Information Environment; Loews L'Enfant Plaza Hotel,
Washington DC. (CNI/AAUP event may be at another location.)
Contact: +1 202 296 5098 (voice), +1 202 872 0884 (fax)
Email: joan@cni.org, debbie@cni.org
Apr. 10-
14 3rd Int'l. WWW Conference: Technology, Tools & Applications;
Darmstadt, Germany. Organized by Fraunhofer Inst. for Computer
Graphics.
Email: www95@igd.fhg.de (?), www95_webmasters@igd.fhg.de
WWW: http://www.igd.fhg.de/www95.html
http://www.bocklabs.wisc.edu/www95/mirror.html
Apr. 11 * 1st Amendment Forum; Lindsey Auditorium, University of
Denver, Denver, Colo. Featured speakers include EFF co-founder
John Perry Barlow (7:30pm MT).
Apr. 15 - Deadline for submissions to June 24 Workshop on Ethical &
Professional Issues in Computing.
Apr. 18 * The First Amendment in Cyberspace: 2nd John Henry Faulk Conference
on the First Amendment; U. of Texas, Austin, Texas. Conf. "will
explore topics such as the legal definition of free speech on
the information superhighway, universal access to the Internet,
censorship online, and new directions for information
technologies in the twenty-first century." Speakers include
Mike Godwin (EFF), Katie Hafner (_Newsweek_, author: _Cyberpunk:_
_Outlaws_on_the_Electronic_Frontier_), Peter Lewis (_New_York_
_Times_), Jamie Love (TAP), Gary Chapman (UT's 21st Century
Project, ex-Dir. of CPSR), Jon Loehman (SW Bell), Eugene Volokh
(UCLA Law School), Frederick Williams (author: _The_People's_Right_
_to_Know:_Media,_Democracy_and_the_Information_Highway_).
Contact: +1 512 495 4515 (voice)
Email: m.norkunas@mail.utexas.edu
Apr. 18-
21 - Digital Creativity: Conference on Computers in Art & Design
Education, + ArCade Computer-Generated Art Exhibition; Univer-
sity of Brighton, England.
Contact: +44 1273 652501 (voice), +44 1273 642405 (fax)
Email: s.grover@bton.ac.uk
Apr. 19-
20 - Information Security & Privacy in the Public Sector; Hyatt Hotel,
Dulles, Virginia. Speakers include: Lynn McNulty (NIST), Marc
Rotenberg (EPIC), Dorothy Denning (Georgetown U.), Joan Winston
(OTA), David Banisar (EPIC), Jim Bidzos (RSA).
Contact: +1 212 952 1899 ext. 308
Apr. 20 - The Twenty-first Century Marketplace: Doing Business on the
Internet; Ann Arbor, Mich. Seminar instructor: Peter Deutsch,
(Bunyip Information Systems). Sponsored by CICNet.
Contact: 1-800-947-4754 (voice, US-only) or
+1 313 998 6703 (voice, elsewhere)
Email: training@cic.net
Apr. 20-
21 * E-Mail World; Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, Calif.
Featured speakers include EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow
(10:30am PT Apr. 20, 2:20pm, Apr. 21).
Apr. 21- System Administrator Liability Workshop; Brookline, Mass.
Sponsored by the Sun User Group. Similar to SUG and
EFF-Austin workshops on related topics in Austin, Texas last year.
Instructor: Ed Cavazos esq. (EF-Houston).
Contact: +1 617 232 1347
Email: tutorial@sug.org
Apr. 22-
25 - Computer Game Developers Conference; Santa Clara, Calif.
[Still trying to determine whether or not game ratings imposition
will be a topic at this Conf. or not. Gaming and the Internet
will be one of the topics, so it may be of interest even aside
from any civil liberties discussion.]
Contact: +1 415 948 2432 (voicemail), +1 514 948 2744 (fax)
Apr. 25 - IBM Security Technology for the Future, Chicago(?). Sponsored,
of course, by IBM. This is a small house organ conference on
Lan Server & OS/2 security, and "will focus on emerging trends
in Information Security Technology and IBM's plans to address
those trends...The keyrole [sic] of the cryptography [sic] in
meeting open distributed security needs across the enterprise are
[sic] highlighted." IBM divisional program manager Curt Symes
appears to be the sole speaker. Registration deadline: Apr. 5.
Email: USGICJ8F@IBMMAIL.COM
Contact: +1 312 245 1599 (voice), +1 312 321 5116 (fax)
Apr. 25-
27 * Vanguard Conference, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Saint Louis, Missouri.
Featured speakers include EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow.
Apr. 26-
29 - USAIN: Cultivating New Ground in Electronic Information Use of the
Information Highway to Support Agriculture; Lexington, Kentucky.
Email: librgrf@gaes.griffin.peachnet.edu
Apr. 27-
29 - CCUMC (Consortium of College and University Media Centers). Utah
State U., Logan, Utah
Contact: +1 515 294 1811 (voice)
Apr. 29 * EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow speaking engagement at Case
Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 7:30pm CT.
May 1-
2 ! 5th Annual "U.S. Copyright Office Speaks" Seminar (East Coast);
the Washington Vista, Wash. DC. Topics include: inside look at
New Register's agenda, analysis of NII legislation, ACCORD update,
& international developments. (West Coast event: June 5-6)
Contact: +1 201 894 8260 (voice)
May 1-
3 - Distance Education & Technology: A Professional Development Work-
shop for Distance Educators; College Park, Maryland.
Contact: +1 301 985 7811 (voice), +1 301 985 7845 (fax)
Email: gbrostro@polaris.umuc.edu
WWW: http://www.umuc.edu/iuc-conf.html
May 3-
4 * Apple New Media Forum; Cannes, France. Featured speakers include
EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow. Sponsored (of course) by Apple
Computer.
May 4-
5 * Nieman Foundation Conference
Featured speakers include Denise Caruso (EFF board of directors).
May 7-
11 - Assoc. for Computing Machinery Conf. on Computer-Human Interaction
(CHI95); Denver, Colorado.
Contact: +1 410 263 5382 (voice)
Email: chi95@sigchi.acm.org
WWW: http://info.sigchi.acm.org/sigchi/chi95.html
May 8-
10 - IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy, Oakland, Calif.
Email: sp95@itd.nrl.navy.mil
May 14-
17 - Interactive95; Anaheim, Calif. "The leading forum for developers
and users of multimedia learning technology".
Contact: 1-800-348-7246 (voice, US-only), +1 617 393 3344 (voice,
elsewhere)
May 17-
20 - National Public Telecomputing Network 1995 Conf. (Free-Net '95);
Computing Commons Bldg., ASU, Tempe, Arizona.
Includes a session entitled "Laws and Liabilities of Electronic
Communities".
Email: amq@nptn.org
WWW: http://www.nptn.org/
May 22-
24 - ErgoCon '95 - Silicon Valley Ergonomics Conference & Exposition;
San Jose, Calif.
Contact: Abbas Moallem, +1 408 9244132 (voice), +1 408 924 4153 (fax)
May 26-
28 - Virtual Futures 1995; U. of Warwick, Coventry, UK. VF'95 "is an
interdisciplinary event that examines the role of cybernetic
and specifically dissipative or non-linear models in the arts,
sciences, and philosophy. The conference explores the relationship
between postmodern philosophy and chaos theory, with topics
ranging from: information technology, hypertext and
multimedia applications...[to] neural nets, and nanotechnology."
Speakers include: Kathy Acker, Hakim Bey, Richard Kadrey, Manuel
DeLanda, Alan Sondheim and many more. Deadline for proposals:
Mar. 1 '95.
Contact: +44 0203 523523 x2582 (voice), +44 0203 523019 (fax)
Email: virtual-futures@warwick.ac.uk
May 31 - Deadline for paper submissions, 11th Ann. Computer Security
Applications Conference (Dec. 11).
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This harmful bill could pass in a matter of WEEKS, or be added to any legislation pending on the Senate floor, such as the Senate telecom bill (if this happens, Sen. Exon's censorship language will be very difficult to keep from passing and changing online communications as we know them utterly and for the worse. Business/industry persons concerned should alert their corporate govt. affairs office and/or legal counsel. Everyone should write to their own Senators and ask them to oppose this bill, and oppose it's inclusion in any other bills. Explain, quickly and clearly, why this bill is dangerous, (see the first article in this newsletter for the main points to bring up) and urge efforts to stop this legislation and to support Sen. Leahy's proposal to see alternatives to this bill explored problems. S314 is Sen. Jim Exon's "Communications Decency Act".
MOST IMPORTANTLY: EXPRESS THESE CONCERNS TO EXON, PACKWOOD & PRESSLER! Contact Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD, Commerce Committee Chairman), Sen. J.J. Exon (D-NE, sponsor of the bill), and Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR, Chairman, Communications Subcommittee). mail, fax, phone, email or express in person your concise, calm, but firm concerns to these Senators now holding the keys to the future of this dangerous legislation:
Party State Name and Address Phone Fax
===== ===== ======================== ============== ==============
R SD Pressler, Larry 1-202-224-5842 1-202-224-1259*
243 RSOB larry_pressler@pressler.senate.gov
Washington, D.C. 20510
*Note this is the Senate Commercommittee's fax machine
R OR Packwood, Robert 1-202-224-5244 1-202-228-3576
259 RSOB
Washington, D.C. 20510
D NE Exon, J. J. 1-202-224-4224 1-202-224-5213
528 HSOB
Washington, D.C. 20510
EFF has lists of the Senate and House with contact information, as well as lists of Congressional committees. These lists are available at:
ftp.eff.org, /pub/EFF/Issues/Activism/Congress_cmtes/
gopher.eff.org, 1/EFF/Issues/Activism/Congress_cmtes
http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Issues/Activism/Congress_cmtes/
The full Senate and House lists are senate.list and hr.list, respectively.
Please send your donations to the EFF Cyberspace Legal Defense Fund. Every dollar counts when freedom of speech, security, and privacy are on the line. Donations can be send to: EFF, attn: Cyberspace Defense Fund, 1667 K St. NW, Suite 801, Washington DC 20006 USA. Visa & MC donations are accepted (via postal mail, or via encrypted email to eff@eff.org - send any message to pgpkey@eff.org for a copy of the EFF PGP 2.6 public encryption key.)
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"If five years from now we [the FBI] solve the access problem, but what we're hearing is all encrypted, I'll probably, if I'm still here, be talking about that in a very different way: the objective is the same. The objective is for us to get those conversations whether they're by an alligator clip or ones and zeros. Whoever they are, whatever they are, I need them." - FBI Director Louis Freeh, clarifying statements that the FBI may seek legislation to ban strong encryption, in an Oct. 1994 interview with Steven Levy.Ensuring the democratic potential of the technologies of computer-mediated communication requires active participation in the political processes that shape our destinies. Government agencies, legislatures and heads of state are accustomed to making decisions about the future of technology, media, education, and public access to information, with far-reaching and long-lasting effects on citizens and their lives, but are accustomed to doing so with little input or opposition from anyone but the largest of corporations, and other government representatives.
Now, more than ever, EFF is working to make sure that you can play an active role in making these choices. Our members are making themselves heard on the whole range of issues. EFF collected over 5000 letters of support for Rep. Maria Cantwell's bill to liberalize restrictions on cryptography. We also gathered over 1400 letters supporting Sen. Leahy's open hearings on the proposed Clipper encryption scheme, which were held in May 1994. And EFF collected over 90% of the public comments that were submitted to NIST regarding whether or not Clipper should be made a federal standard. Additionally, EFF has worked for the passage of legislation that would ensure open access to the information infrastructure of today and tomorrow, and continues to provide some of the best online resources on privacy, intellectual freedom, the legalities of networking, and public access to government representatives and information.
You *know* privacy, freedom of speech and ability to make your voice heard in government are important. You have probably participated in our online campaigns and forums. Have you become a member of EFF yet? The best way to protect your online rights is to be fully informed and to make your opinions heard. EFF members are informed and are making a difference. Join EFF today!
For EFF membership info, send queries to membership@eff.org, or send any message to info@eff.org for basic EFF info, and a membership form.
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The Electronic Frontier Foundation
1667 K St. NW, Suite 801
Washington DC 20006-1605 USA
+1 202 861 7700 (voice)
+1 202 861 1258 (fax)
+1 202 861 1223 (BBS - 16.8k ZyXEL)
+1 202 861 1224 (BBS - 14.4k V.32bis)
Membership & donations:
membership@eff.org
Legal services:
ssteele@eff.org
Hardcopy publications:
pubs@eff.org
General EFF, legal, policy or online resources queries:
ask@eff.org
Editor: Stanton McCandlish, Online Services Mgr./Activist/Archivist
(mech@eff.org)
This newsletter printed on 100% recycled electrons.
Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of EFF. To reproduce signed articles individually, please contact the authors for their express permission. Press releases and EFF announcements may be reproduced individ- ually at will.
To subscribe to EFFector via email, send message body of "subscribe effector-online" (without the "quotes") to listserv@eff.org, which will add you to a subscription list for EFFector.
Back issues are available at:
To get the latest issue, send any message to effector-reflector@eff.org (or er@eff.org), and it will be mailed to you automagically. You can also get the file "current" from the EFFector directory at the above sites at any time for a copy of the current issue.
ftp.eff.org, /pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/
gopher.eff.org, 1/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector
http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/
HTML editions available at:
http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/HTML/
at EFFweb.
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