reply in e-mail... I'm going to be too busy to follow this sub...
as I plan to DO SOMETHING about S.314

             WANT THE FEDS TO KILL THE ON-LINE SCENE?
                       (c)1995 by A.Lizard
permission is granted to re-post this message everywhere in
      unaltered form including this copyright notice.

OUR ON-LINE SCENE WILL DIE UNLESS YOU GET OFF YOUR ASS AND DO
SOMETHING TO PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY. THE FEDS ARE TRYING TO
REGULATE CYBERSPACE OUT OF EXISTENCE.

IF S.314, the so-called "Communications Decency Act of 1995"
BECOMES LAW, IT WILL END THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY. NO MORE
BBSs, NO MORE INTERNET, and possibly no more on-line services
like AOL / CompuServe.

S314 will force BBS sysops, on-line service providers, and
Internet Service Providers who choose to stay plugged in to read
EVERY SINGLE INCOMING AND OUTGOING PIECE OF MAIL AND POST GOING
THROUGH THEIR SYSTEMS TO CHECK FOR "OBSCENE" CONTENT. EVERY FILE
UPLOADED (including via FTP) to a system WILL HAVE TO BE READ /
VIEWED / RUN TO CHECK FOR "OBSCENE" CONTENT. (Prurient
spreadsheets or disk optimizers, anyone?)

Obscene and offensive are totally in the eye of the beholder.
There are sections of the Bible and Shakespeare that have been
judged "obscene". ANY system existing for ANY purpose is
vulnerable to the actions of this kind of law. To get a BBS
devoted entirely to Bible study (or anything else) that isn't
censoring e-mail shut down once this law is in effect, just get
an account on that system, get an overseas friend to send you
some XXX rated E-mail or a XXX .GIF file, and complain to the
Feds. Your friend won't be in danger of prosecution if he stays
out of the U.S.

*** Any service provider (BBS sysop, owner of Internet node, ***
*** etc.) caught under this law faces 2 years Federal jail   ***
*** time and a $100,000 fine.                                ***

After the first wave of prosecutions under this act, the majority
of BBS systems and commercial Internet Service Providers and
workplace and educational institution access to the Internet will
close down. Any remaining on-line services will be increasing
their rates drastically to pay for having censors go through
incoming and outgoing posts and mail. Should you choose to keep
using these services, your mail and posts are going to be slowed
down. They will have to wait until somebody has a chance to read
it and approve it as suitable for you. Do you want people reading
your incoming mail before you do? Do you want people reading your
outgoing mail to "approve" it for sending? That assumes you still
have anywhere to send or receive E-mail. You probably won't.

How long would the U.S. Postal Service or Fed Ex last if they had
to open and read every piece of private mail and every single
package looking for "contraband"? How much would it cost to send
mail in this kind of police state regime? How long would the mail
take? That's what they want to do to US on-line.

This bill is for real. (S.314 = Senate Bill 314) It was accepted
by the Senate Commerce Committee and reported to the full Senate
on March 23, 1995 by a voice vote of 17 to 2 as part of the
"Telecommunications Competition and Deregulations Act of 1995."
The Senate passed it.

    WE HAVE TO STOP S.314 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

UNLESS YOU ACT NOW AND TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS TO ACT, IT WILL
PROBABLY PASS THE HOUSE. CALL AND WRITE (snailmail) YOUR
CONGRESSPERSON NOW!!!. Tell them if they vote for this bill, YOU
will vote for their opponents no matter what else they do or have
done in their term of office. Tell them that their stand on
abortion, on a balanced budget, on "The Contract With America",
on crime, etc. no longer matters to you. Tell them that S.314 is
a personal attack on you as a user or operator of on-line
services. Tell them that S.314 as law will make carrying on your
personal affairs and your business impossible. Get your friends
together and visit your local Congressperson's office in person.
If you can get LOTS of people together, contact the local news
media (press, TV) and let them know when and where.

Tell the President at INTERNET: President@WhiteHouse.Gov that if
it passes, you will vote against him if he doesn't VETO it. Don't
put a lot of energy into the President's E-mail, they are sorted
and counted by category, not read.

A sample letter is in the next post. There will be a file
available somewhere on one of the systems you use some time soon
called S314-1.ZIP . Keep an eye out for it, download it, read it.
It contains analysis of this bill, exact bill language, the basic
facts you need to know about it. Upload it to every system you've
got access to. Parts of the S314.txt file overlap this. Remember,
some people will see it and not this post and vice-versa. Read
the part you haven't seen.

You want an on-line scene to work and play in? IT'S UP TO YOU.
The politicians have declared war on us and it's time for us to
remind them who they're working for.

The worst thing about this is that they are doing this out of
ignorance. They are trying to regulate us the way politicians
back in 1900 tried to regulate cars. Ever heard of a law that
required people to walk in front of any operating car to carry a
flag to warn traffic? That law was made by politicians who knew
nothing about cars. Our politicians know just as much about the
on-line scene as the politicians back in the old days knew about
cars. We can't afford this kind of ignorance on their parts
anymore. I certainly can't, I make my living in large part out
here. We have to cure their ignorance, and we need to throw out
of office those who can't be educated.

CALL RADIO TALK SHOWS. CONTACT YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPERS AND TV
STATIONS AND ASK WHY THERE HAS BEEN SO LITTLE NEWS COVERAGE OF
S.314, the bogus "Communications Decency Act". 

TELL THEM THAT THIS BILL ATTACKS THE INTERESTS OF THE 25,000,000
PLUS ON-LINE USERS AND YOU THINK IT NEEDS COVERAGE. WRITE TO ANY
NEWS MEDIA E-MAIL ADDRESSES YOU HAVE. The more the better.
Remember the death of Clipper? It disappeared because WE forced
the mass media to get the word out and we let our public servants
know what we think. This is a hell of a lot more important, if
S.314 passes, WE WON'T HAVE ANYWHERE TO SEND E-MAIL TO, ENCRYPTED
OR OTHERWISE. Unless our masters permit us to send mail and post
via APPROVED on-line service which will be approved by a person
with the Feds looking over his shoulder or... dumped into the bit
bucket.

There will be subs on several WWIV networks, V-net, and a Fido
echo shortly for organizing resistance to this evil bill... if
you're a #1 sysop and are interested, send me some E-mail.

I think we're going to fight this battle Congressperson by
Congressperson in the House of Representatives... I have heard a
variety of things about it the last few days and am using my
contacts to find out what's really up. The MOST FAVORABLE
INTERPRETATION OF S.314 IS THAT IT WILL ONLY SHUT DOWN PRIVATE
BBS SYSTEMS. LIKE THE ONE YOU ARE READING THIS FROM.

I heard a prediction a few years back that we would soon see the
first American to seek political asylum in a foriegn country. I
never took it seriously. I do now.
                                          A.Lizard

A.Lizard can be reached at:            INTERNET:alizard@bif.com
VirtualNET 9@1510001  Icenet  9@5077   WWIVLink  9@15050
SierraNet  9@5050     WWIVNet 9@11577  FidoNet alizard@1:161/216
