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Date: 1998-09-02

Der Congress aechzt: Zensurgesetze a gogo


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Was der 105 US Congress in puncto Internet/Gesetzgebung so
alles vor sich hat, listet dieser Status Report des Centers
for Democracy & Technology (CDT) auf. Wie jedes Jahr im
Herbst stehen wieder aller/hand Zensurgesetz/versuche an.

post/scrypt: Wegen einer parallel auszusprechenden
Empfehlung zur Lektüre wird das Dokument ausnahmsweise im
Volltext wiedergegeben.


(1) CONGRESS EYES THE INTERNET AS THE 105th NEARS ITS END: A
STATUS REPORT

Before Congress left for its August recess, it became
apparent that members felt that legislation on the Internet
was an inviting target for legislation just before an
upcoming election. A simple search on the term "Internet"
in the Library of Congress' Thomas database now calls up 324
bills as opposed to 75 for the same search for the 104th
Congress. CDT has been following many of these bills,
tracking those with civil liberties implications. The
following is a list of the status of the most important
bills in front of Congress today and their impact on the
future of democracy on the Internet:

_____________________________________________________________________________

(2) CDA II AND OTHER CENSORSHIP LEGISLATION


CJS Appropriations Bill (S. 2260) - Two Internet censorship
amendments were added to the budget for the Commerce,
Justice and State Departments just before it passed the
Senate. These amendments are based on two previous bills,
the Communications Decency Act (CDA) II (S. 1482 -
introduced by Senator Coats) and the Internet School
Filtering Act (S. 1619 - introduced by Senator McCain).
Both are misguided efforts that will have a chilling effect
on constitutionally-protected speech. Not only are they
likely to be found unconstitutional, but they will certainly
be ineffective at protecting children. Nevertheless,
Congress is using these bills to posture, once again, on the
issue of pornography on the Internet.

BILL STATUS: The House did not include these amendments in
its version of the CJS bill which means that the fate of the
language will be decided in a conference committee made up
of members of both houses. If the conference committee
cannot come to an agreement on the bill, there will probably
be attempts to pass a "continuing resolution" in order to
keep the departments funded and avoid another government
shut-down. At that time Senators Coats, McCain, and others
can try again to attach their amendments.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

* CDT's Policy Post 4.16 analyzed the amendments:
http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_4.16.html

* CDT's Policy Post 4.5 analyzed the original bills as
approved in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation
Committee: http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_4.5.html

* CDT's Policy Post 4.2 announced the McCain bill's
introduction: http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_4.2.html

_____________________________________________________________________________

(3) PROTECTING CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (S. 2326) - This
bill, introduced by Senator Bryan, would give the Federal
Trade Commission the ability to prohibit companies from
collecting information online from children under the age of
16 without parental consent. This is the type of legislation
the FTC requested when releasing its recent report and Vice
President Gore called for in his recent speech calling for
an "Electronic Bill of Rights." While this bill would enable
the FTC to go after those Web site operators who are
misleading children, it calls into question the free speech
rights of young teenagers.

BILL STATUS: The bill was only recently introduced. An
attempt to turn the bill into an amendment as part of the
CJS appropriations bill failed. No hearings are currently
scheduled.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

* CDT's analysis of the FTC Report:
http://www.cdt.org/privacy/ftcanalysis.html

* CDT's analysis of VP Gore's 7/31/98 privacy proposal
http://www.cdt.org/privacy/gore_analysis.980811.html
_____________________________________________________________________________

(4) ENCRYPTION AND E-PRIVACY

E-PRIVACY (S. 2607) - This bill (introduced by Senators
Ashcroft and Leahy) lays out a pro-privacy approach to
computer security that contrasts starkly with the Clinton
Administration's approach. It would protect the privacy of
all Americans by: 1) protecting the domestic use of strong
encryption without "key recovery" back doors for government
eavesdropping; 2) easing export controls to allow U.S.
companies to sell their encryption products overseas; 3)
strengthening protections from government access to
decryption keys; and 4) creating unprecedented new
protections for data stored in networks and cell phone
location information. CDT is concerned about provisions in
the bill establishing a new research center to assist
federal, state and local police in dealing with encrypted
data and making it a crime to use encryption to obstruct
justice.

BILL STATUS: The bill is currently under consideration by
the Senate Judiciary Committee.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

* CDT's Encryption Page, with links to resources to all of
the current legislation [House: H.R. 695, ("SAFE") Senate:
S.2067 (E-PRIVACY); S.909 (McCain); S.376 (Leahy-Burns);
S.377 ("Pro-Code")]: http://www.cdt.org/crypto/

* CDT's Policy Post Policy Post 4.11 summarized the main
provisions of the E-PRIVACY bill:
http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_4.11.html

* CDT's Section-by-Section analysis of the E-PRIVACY bill:
http://www.cdt.org/crypto/legis_105/eprivacy/eprivsec.html


_____________________________________________________________________________

(5) DIGITAL SIGNATURES AND AUTHENTICATION

Paperwork Elimination Act (S. 2107) - This bill (introduced
by Senator Abraham) and its House counterpart (HR. 2991 -
the Electronic Commerce Enhancement Act introduced by
Representative Eshoo) are intended to catalyze the use of
digital authentication by government agencies. This would
undoubtedly set standards for the use of digital signatures
in commerce as well. The Abraham bill has been
significantly changed since it was first introduced in order
not to favor certain technologies. However, the bill still
would not protect the privacy of information collected by
third parties in the process of issuing digital
certificates.

BILL STATUS: The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously
passed the changed bill with little debate. CDT is working
with Senator Abraham and Congresswoman Eshoo to add privacy
protections to give online interactions with the government
privacy protections equal to those in the offline world.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

* News.com's story on the Senate Committee's passage of the
Abraham bill:
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,24234,00.html

* Federal Computer Week's story on the Senate Hearings on
the bill:
http://athena.fcw.com/FCW/archive.nsf/Search+View/884BE0E6A27946DE85256658005322
00?OpenDocument

* CDT's letter to the General Services Administration on
their ACES project to provide a citizens with digital
signatures for government services
http://www.cdt.org/digsig/gsaletterrep.html

_____________________________________________________________________________

(6) ADDRESSING JUNK EMAIL

Anti-Slamming Amendments Act (S. 1618 and H.R. 3888) - These
bills, mainly designed to end unfair phone company
practices, contain language meant to help ease the problem
of unsolicited commercial email. The Senate bill includes
language from Senators Murkowski and Torricelli that would
require those who send unsolicited commercial email to: 1)
identify themselves and provide accurate contact information
within the body of their email message; 2) provide accurate
routing information; and 3) stop sending email messages upon
the request of a recipient. Those who break the law could
be fined by the FTC, states attorneys general, and/or
Internet Service Providers. While CDT believes that the bill
will offer individuals remedies to reduce unsolicited
commercial email, we are still concerned that the current
language could impinge on the constitutional protections for
anonymous political speech. The House version (introduced
by Representatives Tauzin and Dingell) would provide similar
remedies, but would authorize ISPs to search through
individual emails looking for the junk email label. CDT is
concerned about both the free speech and privacy
consequences of such a provision.

BILL STATUS: Although S. 1618 has already passed the Senate,
CDT has written a letter to Senators Murkowski and
Torricelli asking them to consider adding language to
preserve anonymous political speech. The House bill is
awaiting a full Commerce Committee vote.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

* CDT's letter to Senators Murkowski and Torricelli:
http://www.cdt.org/spam/cdtletter.html

* CDT's Policy Post 4.12 analyzed the Senate Bill:
http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_4.12.html

* Wired's story on the Tauzin-Dingell Bill's Hearing:
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/14282.html

* The Ad-Hoc Working Group on Unsolicited Commercial Email's
Report to the FTC: http://www.cdt.org/spam/


relayed by Ari Schwartz <ari@cdt.org>
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published on: 1998-09-02
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