ClariNet files suit over Communications Decency law

ClariNet has joined several other electronic publishing companies and organizations in a suit against the U.S. Attorney General that seeks to have the newly passed "Communications Decency Act" declared unconstitutional. This so-called "Exon bill" was passed as an amendment to the recent Telecom bill President Clinton signed Feb 8. We also seek a temporary restraining order against enforcement of the law while the case is under consideration.

The American Civil Liberties Union is spearheading and funding this case. ClariNet has joined with the ACLU, the EFF and several others as plaintiffs in this case because we feel the law would unfairly affect and chill our electronic publishing efforts, and because we feel the law violates the 1st amendment of the U.S. constitution.

Here is the text of the complaint.

Suit News!

• Suit filed before Judge Buckwalter
• Government agrees abortion clauses are unconstitutional!
• Court issues temporary restraining order against enforcement of act on "indecent" material, but not against "patently offensive" material, whatever that is. A partial victory.
• Government agrees not to investigate or enforce "patently offensive" clause during hearing, but reserves right to retroactively prosecute.
• Have a sound card? Play a radio interview with Brad Templeton about the lawsuit from RadioNet.
• American Library Association, et al. (many big players) file similar suit, to be judged alongside ours.

As newspaper publishers we are strong supporters of full freedom of expression. ClariNet has always felt that we should not "protect" our readers from possibly offensive or "indecent" material. Our job is to deliver the news to you. We sometimes even run stories that ordinary print newspapers won't run in the USA because their content might be offensive. We believe our readership are educated and intelligent and able to make their own decisions about what to read. We also believe that children should be able to read our news -- and that it is up to their parents to control their access and educate them about how to deal with material those parents feel is inappropriate.

We are particularly distressed by this bill for several reasons. Not only are we against censorship, we are particularly frightened by the suggestion that the electronic press should be subject to restrictions that would never be allowed or accepted on or by the paper press. This law forbids allowing "indecent" material from reaching minors, but such a restriction has been proven time and time again to be unconstitutional when applied to publishers of paper books and newspapers.

We fear this sort of law because it declares the electronic press to be second class press, not protected by the full strength of the 1st Amendment. The government was able to restrict radio and TV stations, denying them that protection, under the argument that they used the scarce resource of electromagnetic spectrum, and thus were subject to licencing by the FCC. No such argument applies here.

The digital press is growing. All major newspapers now have online versions as well, or plan them. Many feel that the online newspapers will supplant the paper versions in the decades to come, and the digital press will be "the press" as far as the USA is concerned. Laws like this one would leave the USA without a mainstream medium that is protected fully by the 1st amendment. We must stop efforts to curtail our freedom of speech before it's too late.

What ClariNet Publishes

This law would require all open facilities on USENET to either install and use draconian access controls to stop access by minors, or to "dumb down" to a level acceptable for children. Open adult discourse would be destroyed.

Abortion

The Suit

We encourage you to contribute to the ACLU and other public organizations supporting this effort. ClariNet, in addition to being a plaintiff, is making a donation to the ACLU to support them in this effort, but our donation will cover but a tiny fraction of the cost of doing this work. Your help is needed as well. We are confident that the courts will see this law as onerous and unconstitutional but this doesn't happen all by itself.

Other Info

• Our press release on the suit
• The affadavit filed by Brad Templeton, CEO of ClariNet, in the case.
• Thousand Points of Darkness web
• The text of the lawsuit complaint
• The ACLU's press release
• The ACLU's brief on the case

What You can Do

• Contribute to the ACLU and the EFF. You can join the ACLU from their page, but that is not tax deductable. Contributions to the "ACLU Foundation", are deductable, however:
  
  ACLU Foundation
  Attn: Telecommunications Challenge
  132 W. 43rd St.
  New York, NY 10036
  
  You can both join, and contribute as you see fit.

• If in the USA, write your representatives, senators and the White House to protest this law. See the EFF pages for how to do this. We advise writing, phoning or faxing rather than E-mail. Remind them it's more than just netheads against this law.
• Contact the Justice Dept. and urge them not to enforce the law until the courts have ruled on it.
• If you are a ClariNet subscriber, read clari.net.info, clari.net.announce and clari.tw.new_media, for coverage of the story and our involvement.
• Support all the plaintiffs, but particularly the ACLU, and other online initiatives against this law.
• Support the blue ribbon campaign.
• Fight similar laws and regulations in other countries and U.S. states.

- Brad Templeton, Publisher