Why is this page black? I mourn the loss of our inalienable rights to freedom of expression in this country.
Well, folks the CDA has been rather stupidly passed and a number of people I know, some of them friends of mine, have begun to put up webpages against the indecency of the CDA. This file of links will grow as I find more and more things to add, some will be links to abortion sites, some to other controversial sites as they get collated and added to this file, so without further ado, here are the links and commentary. Some important links:
The notion to me that someone in whose pages was until today included discussion of some pretty severe childhood abuse by a family member should be branded a criminal for discussing something openly that was not in any way her own fault for having been subjected to the events in the first place makes me sick to my stomach. The criminal in this is the perpetrator of the violence against my friend, and not my friend for speaking up and telling it in this form of the Public Square. My friend is not a criminal, none of my friends who speak out about their child abuse are, even if they use George Carlin's famous "Seven words you can't say on radio or tv" words and more than even Lenny Bruce was fond of using to express their rage and anguish at having been hurt, no matter what the medium used to get their message out. Abuse takes place in silence and secrecy.
The notion that the kind of censorship the CDA represents will not smother and suppress self-expression of the innocent as well as those already covered under existing laws is absurd. It seeks, as well, to disallow and censor my right to speak out about my own abuse, as well the rights of everyone to simply speak their mind at all, no matter who they are or what they have to say. To say this doesn't impinge on the First Amendment to our Constitution is to ignore the intended chilling effects already being felt and protested throughout the Net.
This bill is MEANT to stifle the populace.
The FCCvs. Pacifica case went as follows as I recall it from when it happened:
Paul Gorman of WBAI played George Carlin's "Seven Words - " monologue during a daytime slot of his show, issuing a disclaimer that those who might be offended by strong language SHOULD tune away. A father and small son were driving within listening range, heard the disclaimer, yet the father felt compelled to make sure his son heard the monologue. The father then brought suit against WBAI and Paul Gorman in the form of suing the Foundation by bringing his complaints to the FCC, who then prosecuted. Then, as I recall it, WBAI had to play such things during very restricted late night hours, but this case also became a precedent, for the encroaching censorship we now see based on some rather vague rules of so-called decency. "Community standards" codes and similar statutes began to appear increasingly, until now we have the CDA.
(EFF's copy of:)the FCC versus Pacifica Foundation case.
Among the things this bill seeks to censor is any discussion of or use of:
One of the Pacifica Foundation's radio stations is KPFA, and here is an early discussion of the CDA from 1994, which mostly discusses monopoly interests in the changing of laws about technology. Crime and Choas discusses encryption and security issues.