The Government is now trying to censor what ideas go onto something we know as the Information Superhighway. The Internet is now supposed to be regulated so that it will be "safe" for everyone to enter. The Government passed a law known as the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In the TA there is a part called the Communications Decency Act or CDA. This part of the bill arose because of the recent surge of pornography on the Infobahn. The CDA criminalizes i

Describin ". The word "describing" translates into anything with pure explicit text. That would include any book converted and placed on the Internet with outspoken words or phrases. This goes against the first amendment. Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer and James Joyce's Ulysses would not be able to possibly be posted online(Wallace: 2). "Sexual or excretory acts or functions": This would relieve anything from sleazy bestsellers to 19th century classics, such as Zola's LaTerre and Flouber's Madam Bovary, to nonfiction books on disease, rape, health, and sexual intercourse from our shelves. This phrase is again unconstitutional(Wallace: 2). Another phrase in there is "Patently Offensive". This is very subjective. These words mean that a jury can decide on what is offensive and what is not (Wallace: 2). If there is a very conservative jury you get a very conservative verdict, but in the same respect if you get a very liberal jury you get a liberal verdict. Would that be considered a fair trial? And last "Contemporary community

standards". There is an easy example to understand under these words. In 1994 two California sysops [system operators] were found guilty of putting offensive material on their BBS [Bulletin Board System]. Their BBS was accessible by people all over the world as long as whoever wanted the information called the California number they had setup. Someone one day out of Memphis, Tennessee called the number and found something disturbing to themselves. The two sysops were convicted because of the community standards in Tennessee not the ones in California(Wallace: 3). There is no reason to treat the electronic and written word different especially because of the big conversion(Wallace: 3). More and more often people are looking to the Internet to do reports and research. It is one of the biggest resources in the world today. If

the TA bill tays in effect many of the books listed will not be downloadable. Mark Managan co-author of the book Sex states, " A law burning books by Miller, Joyce, Burroughs, and Nabokor might also protect children who might get a hold of them, but would be completely unconstitutional under the First Amendment (Wallace: 4)." In 1994 a United States survey showed that 450,000 pornographic pictures and text files were accessible on the Net around the world and that these files were accessed more than 6 million times(Chidley: 58). This is one reason why the government passed the CDA. The Government rationalizes the CDA because of two reasons. One, the protection of children. Two, they claim it is constitutional because the Internet is like a telephone or TV and can be regulated. The protection of children is not an issue the Government should handle. Proponents of the CDA have completely forgot that a credit card number is needed to be given to an ISP [Internet Service Provider] to get connected to the Net(Wallace: 4). Passwords may be added secu

Some common words found in the essay are:
Cuckoo's Egg, Relay Chat, President Enough, BigGuy BigGuy, Infobahn CDA, Patently Offensive, Memphis Tennessee, Frontier Canada, , Radcliffe Hall, freedom speech, community standards, sexually explicit, communications decency act, decency act, protection children, sexual excretory, indecent speech, government passed, medium expression, contemporary community standards, sexual excretory acts, lp calls bill, internet service,
Approximate Word count = 1961
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)