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Computer Undergroud Digest Vol. 07 Issue 30
Computer underground Digest Sun Apr 16, 1995 Volume 7 : Issue 30
ISSN 1004-042X
Editors: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET)
Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith
Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
Ian Dickinson
Copy Desecrator: Emo Shrdlu
CONTENTS, #7.30 (Sun, Apr 16, 1995)
File 1--Kevin Poulsen Sentenced to 51 Months
File 2--When Doctors go Bad
File 3--CDT POLICY #8 -- Leahy Introduces Alternative to CDA (fwd)
File 4--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 19 Mar, 1995)
CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN
THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 1994 11:19:03 CST
From: CuD Moderators <cudigest@mindvox.phantom.com>
Subject: File 1--Kevin Poulsen Sentenced to 51 Months
National Public Radio reported this past week that Kevin Poulsen was
sentenced in federal court in Los Angeles to 51 months in prison, a
new record for "hacking" crimes. Poulsen was also orded to pay
$58,000 in restition for rigging the telephones of Los Angeles radio
stations to win prizes that included cash and a Porsche automobile.
Poulsen still faces federal charges for alleged espionage.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 1995 20:17:38 -0400 (EDT)
zodiac@interlog.com . Thanx.
Subject: File 2--When Doctors go Bad
WHEN DOCTORS GO BAD
One of Toronto's legendary net.ranters rants and raves about
net.ravers and ravers
by
K.K.CAMPBELL
Just over a year ago, TC! brought you a thrill-a-minute story I wrote
about "Doctor"Joe Baptista -- the government-irritant who was
mercilessly faxing-bombing [Ontario legislature] Queen's Park through
his email-to-fax setup, supposedly ringing up $3.5 million in
paper/administrative costs.
Since then, Baptista's partner, "Doctor" Robert Riley, has led an
attack on another front: Freedom Of Information requests. The
provincial government actually rewrote the FOI guidelines so that no
single person could have an excessive number of FOI requests at any
one time. Call it the "Doctor" clause.
Recently, five police chief from larger Ontario cities asked the
Ontario government to permit them to ignore further requests from
either Baptista or Riley -- a move which immediately interested the
newsmedia and civil rights groups. The "Doctors" made the front page
of the Globe and Mail [Canada's second largest daily newspaper].
They call themselves "The Doctors" because Baptista says that when he
uses the attribution, he gets better tables in restaurants. No member
of the Doctors is a conventional doctor. (NOTE: Toronto sysadmin and
devout Courtney Love Math Boy Ken Chasse dubbed him !Dr Baptista --
using the programming operator !, which means "not." Thus he's
Not-Doctor Baptista. The term !Doctors is commonly used today.)
Baptista's height of Internet noteriety came when he teamed-up with
netter Tom Evans (evans@reptiles.org). This dynamic duo grated on
the nerves of thousands in Ontario (and beyond). The !Doctors
practically owned newsgroup ont.general for a while. In August,
Baptista was voted Kook Of The Month in Usenet newsgroup
alt.usenet.kooks .
But it all fell apart shortly thereafter. The two had a very public
falling out in Usenet. Acting as a sort of !Doctor anti-matter, Evans
mercilessly ridiculed Baptista into relative silence. To Ontario
Usenetters, it was a rather surreal site. Today, Baptista rarely posts
-- and when he does, Evans usually appears and roasts Baptista alive;
in response, Baptista mumbles something like "We have nothing to say
to you," and the thread dies.
Thus ended the reign of Ontario's first (and some think greatest)
net.loon. On the anniversary of that TC! article, I called up Tom
Evans for an interview. Evans is editor/publisher of a net ezine
called Net.scandal -- which chronicles the weird and wild and wacko
aspects of the net.community. Evans is hoping to finally get some
dedicated bandwidth he can use to provide free accounts to "wayward
kids" -- to let them create mayhem online, not on the streets.
* * * * *
KKC: I must admit, Tom... last April or so, When I first saw you
posting in ont.general, in full !Doctor mode, I thought you were a...
you know... a fucking asshole.
TE: [laughs] Ya, that's the way I came across. The Doctor thing never
completely fit with me. I didn't know anything about netiquete. And I
didn't give a shit about it. I'm just an outlaw from nowhere, as far
as they knew. And I acted like an asshole. I'm the first to admit it.
KKC: What drew you to Usenet?
TE: I'd just stumbled out of the Fido world. I came to Usenet,
plodding around in hipwaders in these newsgroups bellowing "HI!" -- a
complete clueless newbie. But I watched what was going on, and some
particular people caught my interest: the bigmouths! [grins] The ones
causing the trouble. I could tell who was arguing a conservative
position and who's a radical and who's just an idiot.
KKC: How did you get involved with the !Doctors?
TE: I was on Magic BBS one night. It uses First Class software. As I'd
been on FidoNet, I didn't know how to parse a header to post to the
newsgroups. Plus I was using a DOS machine that I had never used
before. Since there's a chat feature in First Class, I saw 45 people
on at midnight, I thought I'd ask someone for help. What name, of all
those people, do I just happen to pick out? Robert Riley. Didn't know
him from Adam. Complete coincidence.
He says. 'Sure, what's your phone number, I'll phone you up.' He does
and we yap away, and he finally says, 'Hey, I live just down the
street. Want me to come over and show you how to work your machine?' I
shrugged, sure. Drop over. I didn't know he was this major gay boy
yet...
So over he comes and sets my machine up with Q-Term and all the rest
of it. Ran smoothly. After, he's sitting in the chair, and we talk,
until he asks, 'Ever hear of Joe Baptista?' I said, 'God, that's
really funny that you mention that name because I was just busting a
gut laughing today when reading an article about this guy in Toronto
Computes!: 'The Beast That Stalks The Government.' I had the best
fucking laugh reading that.
Rob says, 'Oh, that's us!' What'ya mean, that's us? 'We're Doctors!
We've been doing this for quite a while.' Doing what? 'Ohh, we have
fun. And we use fax machines...'
So picture it: here I am, a complete clueless newbie, without ANY idea
of the net, and meet these guys, who seem to be activists and have a
beef with Canada. Rob gives me Joe's number and I phone the next day.
We talk and swap addresses. Joe promises to drop over sometime and
smoke a joint. Sure enough, he's there the same night. And we got
along _famously_. We were_pals_. I supported him _completely_.
KKC: You guys must have spent some nights getting high and roaring
with laughter at the reactions from the humorless tightass
conservatives on the net...
TE: Oh God! I'd split my sides! Joe was one of the biggest sources of
comic relief in my life! But remember, I am a naive kid from St
Catharines who keeps forgetting there are often darker motives behind
people's actions. I was completely bedazzled by these !Doctor guys who
seemed to know so much. And they really stirred up the pot. As for all
these names I kept seeing in groups like ont.general, howling about
the horrible things the !Doctors were supposedly doing, to me they
were just a bunch of conservative assholes in need of a good kicking
anyway. Fuck them.
My thing was reposting stuff I thought funny from other groups to
ont.general. I didn't know anything about how threading works -- I'm
using a First Class site, at tvo.org , right?
KKC: And you thought ont.general is just some local BBS group, where
you post anything and everything...
TE: Exactly. "Here's a funny article from alt.best.of.internet ! Read
this, gang!" Naturally, people then flamed me, saying, "Look, we can
get this stuff by reading alt.best.of.internet ourselves, so stop
reposting it to ont.general. Well... That just FUELLED me! [laughs] It
made me want to do it more! And Joe was saying, 'Oh, great! Just keep
bugging them. Do whatever you want.'
KKC: You starting calling yourself "Doctor Tom Evans, PR director."
How did that happen?
TE: I proposed I be Joe's "PR manager". I mean, I got a few smarts
going. I worked in the advertising biz for eight years. Master of
misinformation. So I went out to Ontario newsgroups banging Joe's drum
for him. And damned if I didn't start coming up with some fans for the
guy! We were getting attention. Even from the media. Shift magazine
phoned us up for an article and wanted to meet for lunch. I choose to
have it in the cafeteria at Toronto General Hospital -- what better
place for the Doctors, right? (Shift didnt do a story, though... I
think they thought we were too "out there" for the Ontario General
Arts Council, or whoever it is who funds them.)
KKC: It would certainly seem that since your departure from the
!Doctors, Baptista's star (or anti-star) set...
TE: Hmmm. I think the !Doctors that to themselves. And I warned Joe
about it. Fun is fun, but I'm a man of integrity. I won't call in the
cops to harass people. I began to see that darker nature in him,
threatening people on a personal level. Getting them in trouble in
real life. I said, "Joe, that's just malicious." I'm not interested in
destroying things or people. I'm interested in ridiculing the piss
outta someone in Usenet, and cause them so much grief they never want
to login again, but I'm _not_ interested in getting them into legal
trouble with the police or disrupting their personal lives or getting
them fired, or_anything_ like that. I don't want to take this thing
out of cyberspace.
And I don't want the police at _my_ door. I made it clear that if Joe
was going to cause me real life grief, then I couldn't have anything
to do with the !Doctors.
Of course, the reason _Joe wanted_ to use my name and phone number as
PR man at the bottom of his faxes and net posts was because he had to
move back into his Mom's house. Joe is Portuguese. With some Latin
men, the most important person in their lives is "Mom." The one thing
you do not do is shame your mother in any way or you go straight to
hell.
Problem is: what Joe loves _most_ in life is seeing the _reaction_ to
what he does. For him to do a fax spam, and for there not to be a
contact number for him, is just completely pointless. What's the point
if you can't hear the complaints?
KKC: Hear the echo...
TE: Ya, hear the echo. Joe tried a few fax-spams with no number at the
bottom -- because he couldn't use _Mom's_ number, and his _own_ phone
was cut for owing 800 beans to Ma Bell. So he wanted to start adding
my number, since I'm the "PR guy."
I said, "Joe, I'm- I'm- I'm not sure. I don't THINK so... I don't know
if I would end up liking that." Because I'm a low-profile guy. I'm an
eccentric that doesn't want to be in the public eye. Unless it's on my
own terms [like the net]. I don't want someone else's publicity
dogging me around. And I do NOT want The Steam at my front door. But I
agreed to give it a shot and see.
Well, first fax-net press release he used me on was the [member of
provincial parliament Donald] Cousens article. Joe had some phone spat
with Cousen's secretary. He issued a "press release" calling her a
human larvae.
KKC: That's the one where he says she's in heat...
TE: Ya, that she acted like she was a 'bitch in heat.'
KKC: And that's the one that got him elected KOTM.
TE: Right! And damned if that isn't the first one with my name and
phone number on the bottom as the PR Director! So MPP Cousens and 15
other people --including the Globe and Mail -- phoned me! I sure
didn't like the feedback from that. Cousen's secretary herself even
called me, insisting this was hate mongering, subject to Canada's
anti-hate laws. I got scared. That's my bottom line: I don't like
cops, I don't like jail, I've never been in jail, and I'm never gonna
go. So I replied I had nothing to do with it. Naturally, she asked why
my name was on the bottom.
I said: "Welllll, I'm the PR company..."
She said: "Then I suggest your _company_ finds out exactly who the
heck you are PRing."
I replied: "Good point. I will. Thank you very much for calling."
I phoned Joe immediately and said, "OK, that's the end of that. I'll
let this one fly, you had fun with Cousens, fine. I don't want my name
on any more." And, indeed, Joe stopped -- _for the moment._
KKC: Until after the Doctor-Q. The trigger of your split... [NOTE: The
"Doctor-Q" was a barbeque bash held last summer at Evans' downtown
Toronto house. It was attended by Homolka-trial-ban-breaker Gordon
Domm, the net's own Homolka-rumor-monger "Abdul" (abdul@io.com) and
various other personages. It was a mellow substance-drenched event.]
TE: Right. I did all the work for that party. I paid $800 to get that
beer and food and got $725 back. In retrospect, it's real lucky that
was ALL I lost. My fault, though. I don't blame anyone else for that.
But then Joe starts bugging me for money from it, figuring I pocketed
a profit! And then he starts demanding money, and later an
"accounting." He didn't lift a finger for the bash. He didn't stay to
clean up. He didn't do a frigging thing. He's a lazy pig. He's a slug.
He's a complete slug.
His excuse, of course, for being a slug is [in whining Baptista
impersonation] "Well, I have this condition, I was hit over the head,
and I can't remember anything..."
KKC: He told me that once. _Does_ he have a "memory condition?"
TE: Well... He _did_ get beat up by a landlord. But let me tell you,
he sure knows how to remember if you owe him ten bucks from three
months ago.
KKC: He called me once saying he thought it was Monday -- it was
Friday.
TE: I think it all started as kind of a joke. But I also think people
have the capacity to programme themselves that they actually _are_
brain damaged if they work hard enough at work.
I mean, maybe I'm wrong. But there's no big scar on his head. Not that
I've seen. As I understand it, he just got a couple of good swats in
the head from his landlord. No one's ever told me about "The tragic
day Joe had to go to intensive care." I mean, the kind of memory loss
we're talking about here suggests, to me, severe head trauma.
KKC: But "brain damage" aside, you were impressed with !Dr Joe's
ability to mercilessly irritate civil servants.
TE: Oh yeah. He WAS a chartered accountant, remember. That's the
reason he knows how to get at government. First thing you learn as an
accountant is that paper can cost a company more than anything else.
The administration. And that's exactly his attack. Some people think
Joe is perceptive and remarkable and all that, Joe is just doing what
an accountant does -- sends papers to places he knows have to file and
respond.
KKC: Bob Allisat seems to have taken up Baptista's mantle as Toronto's
reigning net.kook. How did he fit into the !Doctors.
TE: Bob was never a full Doctor, because he never really liked or
trusted Joe. When I first saw him, Bob was on all the First Class
BBSs. I saw him at Magic, ranting about Magic sysadmin "Merlin," how
his stuff was being censored... or calling Matrix administrator child
molesters or whatever. It was vicious stuff. Lamer stuff. But Bob was
a _true_ ranter and a raver.
I worked to pull all these guys together because _I love ranters_. I
love them! [laughs] They're my entertainment! I brought Bob into the
circle. Here I am the Net.Scandal PR man, and all these guys fit
perfect into the net.scandal. I aimed to compile rant talent and drum
up such a stink that something entertaining had to come of it! So I
got Allisat on the blower and said, "We gotta meet, Bob! I like what
you've got to say."
Bob CAN write. If he got rid of his self-centred attitude -- and the
whiney "Ohhhh, everyone is picking on me" -- he'd be a star. Another
thing about Bob is that he never resorts to stupid threats -- like
physical violence. Not like stupid people, like this "Alexmac" asshole
at Internex, who threatened to have Bob's knees broken. People who
don't have a higher education resort to violence.
But Bob's whole "Captain Parkdale" thing makes me laugh -- he hasn't
lived in Parkdale that long. And anyway, the real energy in Parkdale
right now isn't the sad cases living on welfare, it's the booming
artist community living at Liberty and Atlantic and King St. It's the
highest concentration of art in the city. I used to live at King and
Dufferin and everybody in there is a cracker artist of some sort. It's
booming. So I told him: 'THIS is the what the new Parkdale is, not
this idea you have for connecting all the nuts at 999 Queen.'
[NOTE: Right around this time, someone from Allisat's system uploaded
an anonymous post about a Portuguese community priest -- calling the
priest a "Nazi, thief, child molester," etc. Baptista saw it and faxed
it out to everyone, adding Tom Evans' home phone number on the bottom,
implying Evans wrote it. Evans emphatically denies having anything to
do with it.]
KKC: Didn't Allisat delete you from his system? Censor you?
TE: Yes, he did. Bob's biggest fear is being sued. He got rid of me at
psc.org because he feared a big lawsuit was coming over the Portuguese
priest thing. And at the same time, UUNet Canada had cut off
Baptista's system. It's my opinion that Allisat put two and two
together and figured I was going to get SO vocal over both events that
he would get sued. So he killed me.
Joe's putting my name on the bottom of that Portuguese priest story
was as dirty as you can get. He sent it out to everyone in the friggin
Portuguese world. I sure got lots of calls from Portuguese people.
People had long been warning me: you are NEVER going to get
government/private sponsorship for your idea of putting rebellious
youth on the net if you have Baptista in your ranks. "You're not going
to get it." They were right. It would never happen.
KKC: Two other !Doctors -- Rob Riley and Bruce Lloyd -- tried to
convince the police to raid and shut down Interlog Internet Services
last September. It was personal revenge against Interlog owner Matt
Harrop (mharrop@interlog.com), but they fooled CITY TV into thinking
they were "caring citizens worried about child porn." Turned out they
uploaded tons of vile material themselves.
TE: Exactly. And that's the whole thing with the !Doctors. There's an
'honor among thieves' code in cyberspace that cannot be broken. They
broke it. And that's why Joe and Rob are not welcome in my home
anymore. They don't have that honor, don't even understand what it is.
I've told them that if they could distinguish between friends and
enemies, they'd be at the top of the charts. The real enemy isn't the
grunt in the trench, like say [Toronto UNIX guru] Jim Mercer; the
enemy is the overblown, overpayed, overstuffed, over-egoed politician.
KKC: So you think "The Doctors" are gone for good?
TE: Yes and no. Joe has almost no support from anyone in the
net.community at all anymore. But they aren't gone. This freedom of
information thing with the Ontario governmenthas a lot of play in it.
The !Doctors have simply regrouped and gone quiet. That's partly why
Joe's just shut his fat little mouth.
KKC: Many people call you a "prankster." You call it irritainment, I
believe.
TE: Ya, I do. And it's so easy. It doesn't have to involve technical
tricks, just knowing human nature.
For instance, I know Joe's biggest fear, almost obsessive worry, is
that his stuff is being cancelled. See, Joe's only weapon in life is
Usenet. The threat that his words are going to be canceled is
paramount. So I thought, dandy, I'm going to fan those flames. I used
along dead account of mine at [Ken Chasse's] Sonic Interzone to start
the rumor, saying, "Goodness, I can't see posts from Joe anywhere!"
And the Doctors freaked!
It's like fishing. And all these little tricks we try to write about
in Net Scandal. Sometimes you get bites and nibbles. But you are
always hoping you get the hook right down the throat so you can really
haul on them. [laughs]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 1995 22:56:14 -0500
From: jim thomas <tk0jut1@CS.NIU.EDU>
Subject: File 3--CDT POLICY #8 -- Leahy Introduces Alternative to CDA (fwd)
------- start of forwarded message -------
From--jseiger@cdt.org (Jonah Seiger)
Date--7 Apr 1995 15:46:59 -0500
----------------------------------------------------------
****** ******** *************
******** ********* *************
** ** ** *** POLICY POST
** ** ** ***
** ** ** *** April 7, 1995
** ** ** *** Number 8
******** ********* ***
****** ******** ***
CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY
----------------------------------------------------------
A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online
---------------------------------------------------------
CDT POLICY POST 4/7/95 Number 8
CONTENTS: (1) Senator Leahy Introduces Alternative to Communications
Decency Act
(2) Leahy Statement on Introdcution of S. 714
(3) Text of S. 714
(4) About the Center For Democracy and Technology
This document may be re-distributed freely provided it remains in its
entirety.
--------------------------------------------------------
SUBJECT: Senator Leahy Introduces Alternative to Exon/Gorton
Communications Decency Act
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) today introduced the "Child Protection, User
Empowerment, and Free Expression in Interactive Media Study Bill" (S. 714).
The bill represents an alternative to Senator Exon (D-NE) and Senator
Gorton's (R-WA) "Communications Decency Act", which would criminalize the
transmission of any content deemed "obscene, indecent, lewd, lascivious,
filthy, or harassing."
Leahy's bill would direct the Department of Justice, in consultation with
the Commerce Department, to conduct a study to address technical means for
empowering users to control information they receive over interactive
communications systems such as the Internet, commercial online services,
independent BBS's, and future interactive media. The bill is being
co-sponsored by Senators Bob Kerry (D-NE) and Herb Kohl (D-WI), and is
expected to generate support across party lines.
The Communications Decency Act, which Leahy seeks to replace, is now
pending before the Senate as part of the "Telecommunications Competition
and Deregulation Act of 1995' (S. 652).
In a statement announcing the introduction of the bill, Senator Leahy urged
Congress to carefully consider the implications of imposing content
restrictions on interactive media. "Heavy-handed efforts by government to
regulate obscenity on interactive information services will only stifle the
free flow of information, discourage the robust development of new
information services, and make users avoid using the system" Leahy said.
Instead, Leahy urged a careful consideration of possible alternatives
before Congress attempts to legislate in this area. Under the legislation
introduced today, the Department of Justice, in consultation with the
Department of Commerce, would examine:
* Whether current laws prohibiting the distribution of obscenity and child
pornography by means of computers are sufficient.
* Whether current law enforcement resources are sufficient to enforce
existing laws.
* The availability of technical means to enable parents and other users to
control access to "commercial, non-commercial, violent, sexually explicit,
harassing, offensive, or otherwise unwanted" content.
* Recommendations to encourage the development and deployment of such
technologies
* The availability of technical means to promote the free flow of
information consistent with Constitutional values.
The Center for Democracy and Technology commends Senator Leahy for his
leadership on this issue and his efforts to promote the free flow of
information in cyberspace. CDT will work to support Senator Leahy's
efforts and to develop alternatives to content restrictions in interactive
media.
----------------------------------------------------------
LEAHY STATEMENT ON INTRODUCTION OF S. 714
STATEMENT OF SENATOR LEAHY
On Introduction of The Child Protection, User Empowerment, and Free
Expression In Interactive Media Study Bill
April 7, 1995
Mr. President: I rise today to introduce a bill calling for a study by the
Department of Justice, in consultation with the U.S. Department of Commerce
on how we can empower parents and users of interactive telecommunications
systems, such as the Internet, to control the material transmitted to them
over those systems. We must find ways to do this that do not invite
invasions of privacy, lead to censorship of private online communications,
and undercut important constitutional protections.
Before legislating to impose government regulation on the content of
communications in this enormously complex area, I feel we need more
information from law enforcement and telecommunications experts. My bill
calls for just such a fast-track study of this issue.
There is no question that we are not living through a revolution in
telecommunications with cheaper, easier to use and faster ways to
communicate electronically with people within our own homes and
communities, and around the globe.
A byproduct of this technical revolution is that supervising our children
takes on a new dimension of responsibility. Very young children are so
adept with computers that they can sit at a keypad in front of a computer
screen at home or at school and connect to the outside world through the
Internet or some other on-line service. Many of us are, thus, justifiably
concerned about the accessibility of obscene and indecent materials on-line
and the ability of parents to monitor and control the materials to which
their children are exposed. But government regulation of the content of all
computer and telephone communications, even private communications, in
violation of the First Amendment is not the answer -- it is merely a
knee-jerk response.
Heavy-handed efforts by government to regulate obscenity on interactive
information services will only stifle the free flow of information,
discourage the robust development of new information services, and make
users avoid using the system.
The problem of policing the Internet is complex and involves many important
issues. We need to protect copyrighted materials from illegal copying. We
need to protect privacy. And we need to help parents protect their
children. Penalties imposed after the harm is done is not enough. We need
to find technical means from stopping the harm done before it happens.
My bill calls for a study to address the legal and technical issues for
empowering users to control the information they receive over electronic
interactive services. Instead of rushing to regulate the content of
information services, we should encourage the development of technology
that gives parents and other consumers the ability to control the
information that can be access over a modem.
Empowering parents to manage what their kids access over the Internet with
technology under their control is far preferable to some of the bills
pending in Congress that would criminalize users or deputize information
service providers as smut police.
Let's see what this study reveals before we start legislating in ways that
could severely damage electronic communications systems, sweep away
important constitutional rights, and undercut law enforcement at the same
time.
I ask unanimous consent, to have printed in the record at this pint, the
"Child Protection, User Empowerment, and Free Expression in Interactive
Media Study" bill.
-----------------------------------------------------------
TEXT OF S. 714
104th Congress
1st Session
S. 714
-------------------------------
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
Mr. Leahy introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the committee on_______
-------------------------------
A BILL
To require the Attorney General to study and report to Congress on the
means of controlling the flow of violent, sexually explicit, harassing,
offense, or otherwise unwanted material in interactive telecommunications
systems.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. STUDY ON MEANS OF RESTRICTING ACCESS TO UNWANTED MATERIAL
IN INTERACTIVE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS.
(a) STUDY AND REPORT. -- Not later than 150 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall complete a study and
submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on
the Judiciary of the House of Representatives a report containing --
(1) an evaluation of whether current criminal laws governing the
distribution of obscenity over computer networks and the creation and
distribution of child pornography by means of computers are fully
enforceable in interactive media;
(2) an assessment of the Federal, State, and local law enforcement
resources that are currently available to enforce those laws;
(3) an evaluation of the technical means available to --
(A) enable parents to exercise control over the information that
their children receive and enable other users to exercise control over the
commercial and noncommercial information that they receive over interactive
telecommunications systems so that they may avoid violent, sexually
explicit, harassing, offensive, or otherwise unwanted material; and
(B) promote the free flow of information consistent, with
Constitutional values, in interactive media; and
(4) recommendations to encourage the development and deployment of
technical means, including hardware and software, to enable parents to
exercise control over the information that their children receive and
enable other users of exercise control over the information that they
receive over interactive telecommunications systems so that they may avoid
harassing, violent, sexually explicit, harassing, offensive, or otherwise
unwanted material.
(b) CONSULTATION -- In conducting the study and preparing the
report under subsection (a), the Attorney General shall consult with the
National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the
Department of Commerce.
----------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY
The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest
organization. The Center's mission is to develop and advocate public
policies that advance constitutional civil liberties and democratic
values in new computer and communications technologies.
Contacting us:
General information on CDT can be obtained by sending mail to
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Date: Sun, 19 Mar 1995 22:51:01 CDT
From: CuD Moderators <cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu>
Subject: File 4--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 19 Mar, 1995)
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End of Computer Underground Digest #7.30
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