[116699] in Cypherpunks
FWD: Censor the Internet, Say Drug War Senators
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jean-Francois Avon)
Wed Aug 18 13:33:23 1999
Message-Id: <199908181709.NAA22750@cti06.citenet.net>
From: "Jean-Francois Avon" <jf_avon@citenet.net>
To: "Dagenais Francois" <dagenais@sympatico.ca>,
"Machineco" <machtool@total.net>, "Horvath Peter" <cctech@cam.org>,
"Parkinson Sid" <sid@stlawrenceinstitute.org>,
"Ralph C. Maddocks" <saesnig@login.net>,
"Kelly-Gagnon, Michel" <mkellygagnon@iedm.org>,
"=?iso-8859-1?q?Le_Qu=E9becois_Libre?=" <ql@quebecoislibre.org>,
"=?iso-8859-1?q?Gilles_Gu=E9nette?=" <gilles@quebecoislibre.org>,
"Cypherpunks" <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Cc: "Breitkreuz Hon. Gary MP" <Breitkreuz.G@parl.gc.ca>,
"Lorne Gunter" <lgunter@thejournal.southam.ca>,
"Kearns Peter" <kearns@compusmart.ab.ca>,
"Buckner Taylor" <tbuckner@together.net>,
"Canadian Institute for Legislative Action" <teebee@sprint.ca>
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 13:05:22 -0400
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Reply-To: "Jean-Francois Avon" <jf_avon@citenet.net>
From somewhere on the site http://www.self-gov.org/
and broadcasted via Liberator Online e-newsletter
August 17, 1999
Vol. 4, No. 16
Circulation: 30,330 in 79 countries
Censor the Internet, Say Drug War Senators
A monstrous Internet censorship bill has been proposed before the U.S.
Congress that would ban Internet *discussions* of the use of illegal
drugs. Also banned would be sites - or even *links* to sites -- that
sell "drug paraphernalia" (such as bongs and rolling paper) or that
merely discuss how such items are used.
As WIRED News notes, "Even editors of news organizations that publish
articles about drug culture and link to related sites will be subject
to arrest and prosecution."
The bill covers "the use of any communications facility to post,
publicize, transmit, publish, link to, broadcast, or otherwise
advertise" drug paraphernalia-related information. The bill would make
such acts punishable by a fine and three years in prison.
A second part of the bill makes it a felony - punishable by up to ten
years in prison - to distribute "by any means" information about "the
manufacture or use of a controlled substance" if the recipient of such
information intends to use it to get high or otherwise violate the
law. (Thought crime, anyone?)
Even something as seemingly mild as a link to "High Times" magazine
could become a felony under the bill.
The bill, deceptively entitled the "Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation
Act," was introduced in early August. (Too bad we don't have
truth-in-labeling laws regarding bill titles. "The Anti-First
Amendment, Anti-Liberty Internet Censorship and Control Act, Spawned
by Despots and Tyrants," for example, would be so much more accurate.)
A dozen or so senators have signed on as supporters. The Clinton
administration thus far has refused to take a position on the bill.
Primary supporters of the bi-partisan bill are Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
and Orrin Hatch (R-UT). This same duo brought us 1996's "Dirty Pixels"
law, which made it a felony to own or manufacture computer-generated
(i.e., not real) images of nude children.
In the past Feinstein has also supported encryption bans, censoring of
Internet bomb-making information, mandatory national ID cards, and gun
bans. Jeesh.
(Sources: WIRED News, Aug. 14; "Time"; Associated Press; NORML)
