From: [t--wa--s] at [Glue.umd.edu] (Thomas Grant Edwards)
Date: 26 Jun 1995 21:26:46 -0400
Subject: Cato Study Release: Exon bill would "lobotomize the Internet"

STUDY RELEASE

June 24, 1995

Exon bill would "lobotomize the Internet," study says

The Communications Decency Act, sponsored by Sen. James Exon (D-
Neb.) and passed by the Senate 84-16 on June 14, could severely
restrict the free flow of information that characterizes the
digital age, says a new study from the Cato Institute.

In "New Age Comstockery: Exon vs. the Internet" (Policy Analysis
no. 232), First Amendment lawyer Robert Corn-Revere writes, "The
law threatens to lobotomize the Internet by superimposing
essentially the same legal standard that stifled the publication
of literature in America for nearly 60 years under the Comstock
law."

Passed in 1873, the Comstock law prohibited the use of the mails
to send any publication or photograph deemed "obscene, lewd,
lascivious," or of "indecent character." 

Incompatible with free expression

Corn-Revere says the bill is unnecessary and incompatible with a
culture of free expression.

    After the Comstock law was passed, literature in America was
     severely censored for 60 years.  Authors like Tolstoy, D. H.
     Lawrence, Theodore Dreiser, and Edmund Wilson were victims
     of the obscenity laws, and American readers were denied
     access to their books.
    FCC regulation of indecency has made the agency a "national
     censorship board," which has clearly had a chilling effect
     on broadcasters.  
    Computers and modems offer parents much more control over
     access to material than do telephone or television. Online
     services and Internet providers are giving parents a range
     of options for blocking objectionable material.

Why it matters

The telecommunications bill now goes to the House, where Speaker
Newt Gingrich has shown an understanding of the potential
benefits and the requirements of the information age.  The
digital age offers unprecedented access to information and
unparalleled opportunities for pluralism in speech and
publishing.  Government intrusion into the content available on
the Internet can only impede that progress.  

The full text of this study is available at Cato's Web site.
(http://www.cato.org/main/home.html)  
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