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                                                 your name
                                                 your address
                                                 city/state/zip
                                                 phone
                                                 e-mail address

name of Congressman/Senator
address
city/state/zip

Dear [insert name here]:

I urge you to vote against and actively oppose S.314, the
so-called "Communications Decency Act". Far from being the
measure to "protect children" it pretends to be, it will force a
burden of censorship on on-line service providers whose primary
customers are adults. These services range from BBS systems to
Internet Service Providers to on-line services such as CompuServe
and America On-Line. Passage of S.314 will force most of these
services to close.

I, like over 25,000,000 other Americans, depend on access to
these services to provide me with instant communications. I use
this for business purposes and to enrich my personal life. These
services are so important to my lifestyle that I will suffer
drastic economic and personal injury if S.314 is allowed to
become law.

It can be reasonably assumed that this bill as law will cause the
American economy will tens or even hundreds of billions of
dollars of damage. Damage to businesses include:

1) Commercial on-line service providers. This will kill the
skyrocketing growth of Internet Service Providers. These
organizations are employers. Do we need to lose more decently
paying skilled/technical jobs?
2) Modem manufacturers. Who's going to buy a modem if there's
nobody to call with it?
3) Network equipment manufacturers. A lot of the growth in
computer networking is via the Internet. No Internet, no growth.
4) Indirect damage to businesses no longer being able to use
instantaneous electronic communications to transact business.
5) Competitive damage to businesses resulting from the fact that
we will be the only First World country to have deliberately
pulled our own plug to the Internet in a world where every other
developed country will have access to it.

The Justice Department in a letter to Senator Leahy described
S.314 as an "enforcement nightmare". It sounds to me like they
don't support it, either.

I will be watching how you vote on this issue. If you vote for
it, I will remember on Election Day, and I will vote against you
and encourage all of my friends, whether they are on-line or not
to vote against you. Vote for this and I will vote against you
regardless of your vote on any other issues, such as crime and
gun control and abortion and "The Contract on America" and
deficit reduction, and no matter what you have done for our area.

                                             your signature


                                             your name (print)

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