22 lines
1.4 KiB
Plaintext
22 lines
1.4 KiB
Plaintext
CDA
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/CDA/ The Communications Decency Act, passed as section 502 of a major
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telecommunications reform bill on February 8th, 1996 ( Black Thursday ). The
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CDA made it a federal crime in the USA to send a communication which is
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obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse,
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threaten, or harass another person. It also threatened with imprisonment
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anyone who knowingly makes accessible to minors any message that describes,
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in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards,
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sexual or excretory activities or organs. While the CDA was sold as a
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measure to protect minors from the putative evils of pornography, the
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repressive political aims of the bill were laid bare by the Hyde amendment,
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which intended to outlaw discussion of abortion on the Internet. To say that
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this direct attack on First Amendment free-speech rights was not well
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received on the Internet would be putting it mildly. A firestorm of protest
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followed, including a February 29th 1996 mass demonstration by thousands of
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netters who turned their home pages black for 48 hours. Several
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civil-rights groups and computing/telecommunications companies mounted a
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constitutional challenge. The CDA was demolished by a strongly-worded
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decision handed down in 8th-circuit Federal court and subsequently affirmed
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by the U.S. Supreme Court on 26 June 1997 ( White Thursday ). See also Exon.
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