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Text File  |  1996-05-20  |  15KB  |  192 lines
  1. ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  2. │From: ACLU.Newsfeed-Owner@villa.fc.net                                       │
  3. │                                                                             │
  4. │----------------------------------------------------------------             │
  5. │04-12-96                                                                     │
  6. │ACLU Newsfeed -- ACLU News Releases Direct to YOU                            │
  7. │----------------------------------------------------------------             │
  8. │TODAY'S NEWS:                                                                │
  9. │                                                                             │
  10. │* ACLU v. RENO: TRIAL UPDATE: Government Opens Case in Internet Trial        │
  11. │                                                                             │
  12. │* New Utah Bill Seeks to Kill Gay Clubs                                      │
  13. │----------------------------------------------------------------             │
  14. │     *ACLU v. RENO: TRIAL UPDATE: Government Opens Case in Internet Trial*   │
  15. │                                                                             │
  16. │                                                                             │
  17. │*  1st Government Witness Acknowledges Difficulty in Finding Sexually        │
  18. │Explicit Material Online                                                     │
  19. │                                                                             │
  20. │*  2nd Government Witness Returns Monday to Conclude Testimony               │
  21. │                                                                             │
  22. │*  Plaintiffs have option to rebut government case Monday                    │
  23. │                                                                             │
  24. │PHILADELPHIA -- Testifying for the government today, Special Agent Howard A. │
  25. │Schmidt acknowledged, in answer to skeptical questioning by a three-judge    │
  26. │panel, that it is "highly unlikely" for anyone to come across sexually       │
  27. │explicit sites on the Internet by accident.                                  │
  28. │                                                                             │
  29. │As the first witness for the government, Agent Schmidt began the morning with│
  30. │a live Internet tour and demonstration of a search for so-called indecency.  │
  31. │ The demonstration stopped short of actually displaying any of the images,   │
  32. │but traced for the court the route by which Schmidt arrived at various web   │
  33. │sites.                                                                       │
  34. │                                                                             │
  35. │Schmidt acknowledged -- under cross-examination -- that majority of the sites│
  36. │he found would have been off limits had he been running a software program   │
  37. │such as SurfWatch, that blocks access to Internet sites considered           │
  38. │inappropriate for children.                                                  │
  39. │                                                                             │
  40. │Marjorie Heins, who conducted cross-examination for the ACLU, noted that     │
  41. │Agent Schmidt's expertise -- and the government's case -- lies in focusing on│
  42. │a very narrow category of sexual material, much of which is already covered  │
  43. │by existing obscenity law.                                                   │
  44. │                                                                             │
  45. │"In today's testimony, the government attempted to divert the court's        │
  46. │attention from the serious concerns of our plaintiffs by focusing on material│
  47. │that is highly inflammatory and largely irrelevant to this case," Heins said.│
  48. │                                                                             │
  49. │The consolidated cases of ACLU v. Reno and ALA v. DOJ challenge provisions of│
  50. │the Communications Decency Act that criminalize making available to minors   │
  51. │"indecent" or "patently offensive" speech.                                   │
  52. │                                                                             │
  53. │Under questioning by the judges, Agent Schmidt was asked how he would enforce│
  54. │the censorship law when confronted with a safe-sex information web-site that │
  55. │displayed an image illustrating how to put a condom on an erect penis.       │
  56. │                                                                             │
  57. │Agent Schmidt said that since the context was "educational, not purely for   │
  58. │pleasure purposes," he would not censor the site but advise the publishers to│
  59. │post warnings.                                                               │
  60. │                                                                             │
  61. │His answer was different when asked how he would rate an online copy of the  │
  62. │controversial Vanity Fair magazine cover featuring the actress Demi Moore,   │
  63. │nearly naked and eight months pregnant.                                      │
  64. │                                                                             │
  65. │In that case, Schmidt said, the Communications Decency Act would apply       │
  66. │because the image was "for fun."  He also said, in answer to a query from    │
  67. │Judge Stuart Dalzell, that the community standard as to the offensive of the │
  68. │image might be different for Minnesota than it would for New York.           │
  69. │                                                                             │
  70. │"It is ironic that, according to the government, an explicit online image of │
  71. │an erect penis in an educational context would be acceptable, whereas Vanity │
  72. │Fair, a constitutionally protected publication containing a much less        │
  73. │explicit image, would be censored," Heins said.                              │
  74. │                                                                             │
  75. │Following Agent Schmidt's testimony, the final plaintiff witness, Dr. Albert │
  76. │Vezza, told the judges about PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection), │
  77. │a new rating system designed to allow parents to control children's access to│
  78. │the Internet without censorship.                                             │
  79. │                                                                             │
  80. │Dr. Vezza is associate director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Sciences  │
  81. │and has chief responsibility for the PICS project.  He was unable to testify │
  82. │earlier in the case due to scheduling conflicts.                             │
  83. │                                                                             │
  84. │Dr. Vezza said he expected that wide industry acceptance of the PICS standard│
  85. │would enable any number of "third-party" organizations such as the PTA, the  │
  86. │Christian Coalition or the Boy Scouts of America to rate content for Internet│
  87. │users.                                                                       │
  88. │                                                                             │
  89. │The second and final government witness, Dr. Dan Olsen, a professor of       │
  90. │computer science at Brigham Young University, took the stand in the          │
  91. │mid-afternoon.                                                               │
  92. │                                                                             │
  93. │Dr. Olsen acknowledged that the PICS standard would allow parents to control │
  94. │their children's Internet viewing according to their own values or via a     │
  95. │rating system devised by a trusted organization.                             │
  96. │                                                                             │
  97. │He also acknowledged that a system he had conceived in which Internet sites  │
  98. │must be labelled by the content originator, would not allow for such an      │
  99. │independent rating scheme.                                                   │
  100. │                                                                             │
  101. │While plaintiff lawyers completed cross-examination of Dr. Olsen today, he   │
  102. │will retur