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3.3 KiB
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24 lines
3.3 KiB
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>CDA</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../C.html" title="C"/><link rel="previous" href="cd-tilde.html" title="cd tilde"/><link rel="next" href="cdr.html" title="cdr"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">CDA</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="cd-tilde.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">C</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="cdr.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="CDA"/><dt xmlns="" id="CDA"><b>CDA</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/C·D·A/</span></dt></dt><dd><p> The “<span class="quote">Communications Decency Act</span>”, passed as section 502
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of a major telecommunications reform bill on February 8th, 1996
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(“<span class="quote">Black Thursday</span>”). The CDA made it a federal crime in the USA
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to send a communication which is “<span class="quote">obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy,
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or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another
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person.</span>” It also threatened with imprisonment anyone who
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“<span class="quote">knowingly</span>” makes accessible to minors any message that
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“<span class="quote">describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary
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community standards, sexual or excretory activities or
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organs</span>”.</p><p>While the CDA was sold as a measure to protect minors from the
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putative evils of pornography, the repressive political aims of the bill
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were laid bare by the Hyde amendment, which intended to outlaw discussion
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of abortion on the Internet.</p><p>To say that this direct attack on First Amendment free-speech rights
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was not well received on the Internet would be putting it mildly. A
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firestorm of protest followed, including a February 29th 1996 mass
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demonstration by thousands of netters who turned their <a href="../H/home-page.html"><i class="glossterm">home
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page</i></a>s black for 48 hours. Several civil-rights groups and
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computing/telecommunications companies mounted a constitutional challenge.
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The CDA was demolished by a strongly-worded decision handed down in
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8th-circuit Federal court and subsequently affirmed by the U.S. Supreme
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Court on 26 June 1997 (“<span class="quote">White Thursday</span>”). See also
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<a href="../E/Exon.html"><i class="glossterm">Exon</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="cd-tilde.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../C.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="cdr.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">cd tilde </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> cdr</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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