Join INTERNET DAY OF PROTEST TUESDAY 12/12/95

[Tomohiro Hori <thori001 -at- ACS -dot- BU -dot- EDU>]

Hello all, please forward this info to your online friends.

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     CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE NET CENSORSHIP LEGISLATION IN CONGRESS

    On Tuesday December 12, 1995, Join With Hundreds of Thousands
                  Of Your Fellow Internet Users In

                  A NATIONAL INTERNET DAY OF PROTEST

      PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT
                REDISTRIBUTE ONLY UNTIL December 20, 1995
________________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS
        Internet Day of Protest: Tuesday December 12, 1995
        What You Must Do On Tuesday December 12, 1995
        List of Participating Organizations
        Where Can I Learn More?

________________________________________________________________________
INTERNET DAY OF PROTEST:  TUESDAY DECEMBER 12, 1995

Outrageous proposals to censor the Internet demand that the Internet
Community take swift and immediate action. We must stand up and let
Congress know that we will not tolerate their attempts to destroy this
medium! Please join hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens in a
National Day of Protest on Tuesday December 12, 1995.

As you know, on Wednesday December 6, 1995, the House Conference
Committee on Telecommunications Reform voted to impose far reaching and
unconstitutional "indecency" restrictions on the Internet and other
interactive media, including large commercial online services (such as
America Online, Compuserve, and Prodigy) and smaller Internet Service
Providers such as Panix, the Well, Echo, and Mindvox.

These restrictions threaten the very existence of the Internet and
interactive media as a viable medium for free expression, education,
commerce.  If enacted, the Internet as we know it will never be the
same.

Libraries will not be able to put any books online that might
offend a child somewhere.  No "Catcher in the Rye" or "Ulysses" on the net.
Internet Service Providers could face criminal penalties for allowing
children to subscribe to their Internet Services, forcing many  small
companies to simply refuse to sell their services to anyone under 18. Worst
of all, everything you say and publish on the net will have to be "dumbed
down" to that which is acceptable to a child.

As Internet users, we simply must not allow this assault against the
Internet and our most basic freedoms to go unchallenged.

On Tuesday December 12, the organizations below are urging you to
join us in a NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST. The goal is to flood key members of
the House and Senate with phone calls, faxes and email with the message
that the Internet community WILL NOT TOLERATE Congressional attempts to
destroy the Internet, limit our freedoms and trample on our rights.

Below are the phone, fax, and email address of several key members of
Congress on this issue and instructions on what you can do to join the
National Day of Protest to save the Net.

______________________________________________________________________
WHAT YOU MUST DO ON TUESDAY DECEMBER 12, 1995

1. Throughout the day Tuesday December 12, please contact as many
   members of Congress on the list below as you can. If you are only
   able to make one call, contact House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Finally,
   if the Senator or Representative from your state is on the list
   below, be sure to contact him or her also.

2. Urge each Member of Congress to "stop the madness".  Tell them that
   they are about to pass legislation that will destroy the Internet as
   an educational and commercial medium.  If you are at a loss for
   words, try the following sample communique:

   Sample phone call:

        Both the House and Senate bills designed to protect children
        from objectionable material on the Internet will actually
        destroy the Internet as an medium for education, commerce, and
        political discourse. There are other, less restrictive ways to
        address this issue.

        I urge you to oppose both measures being proposed in the
        conference committee.  This is an important election issue to
        me.

   Sample letter (fax or email):

        The Senate conferees are considering ways to protect children
        from inappropriate material on the Internet.  A vote for either
        the House or Senate proposals will result in the destruction of
        the Internet as a viable medium for free expression, education,
        commerce.  Libraries will not be able to put their entire book
        collections online.  Everyday people like me will risk massive
        fines and prison sentences for public discussions someone s
        somewhere might consider "indecent".

        There are other, less restrictive ways to protect children from
        objectionable material online. This is an important election
        issue to me.

3. If you're in San Francisco, or near enough to get there, go to
   the Rally Against Censorship from Ground Zero of the Digital Revolution:

   WHEN: Monday, December 11, 1995  12:00 - 1:00 PM
   WHERE: South Park (between 2nd and 3rd, Bryant and Brannon) San
 Francisco.
   SPEAKERS: To be announced
   BRING: Attention-grabbing posters, signs, and banners that demonstrate
        your committment to free speech and expression, and your feelings
        about Congress.
   FOR UPDATED INFORMATION (including rain info):
        http://www.hotwired.com/staff/digaman/


### THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT ###

4. Mail a note to protest -at- vtw -dot- org to let us know you did your part.
   Although you will not receive a reply due to the number of
   anticipated responses, we'll be counting up the number of people that
   participated in the day of protest.


      P ST Name and Address           Phone           Fax
      = == ========================   ==============  ==============
      R AK Stevens, Ted               1-202-224-3004  1-202-224-1044
      R AZ McCain, John               1-202-224-2235  1-602-952-8702
        senator_mccain -at- mccain -dot- senate -dot- gov
      D HI Inouye, Daniel K.          1-202-224-3934  1-202-224-6747
      R KS Dole, Robert               1-202-224-6521  1-202-228-1245
      D KY Ford, Wendell H.           1-202-224-4343  1-202-224-0046
        wendell_ford -at- ford -dot- senate -dot- gov
      R MS Lott, Trent                1-202-224-6253  1-202-224-2262
      R MT Burns, Conrad R.           1-202-224-2644  1-202-224-8594
        conrad_burns -at- burns -dot- senate -dot- gov
      D NE Exon, J. J.                1-202-224-4224  1-202-224-5213
      D SC Hollings, Ernest F.        1-202-224-6121  1-202-224-4293
        senator -at- hollings -dot- senate -dot- gov
      R SD Pressler, Larry            1-202-224-5842  1-202-224-1259
        larry_pressler -at- pressler -dot- senate -dot- gov
      R WA Gorton, Slade              1-202-224-3441  1-202-224-9393
        senator_gorton -at- gorton -dot- senate -dot- gov
      D WV Rockefeller, John D.       1-202-224-6472  n.a.
        senator -at- rockefeller -dot- senate -dot- gov

   Dist ST Name, Address, and Party     Phone            Fax
   ==== == ========================     ==============  ==============
      6 GA Gingrich, Newt (R)           1-202-225-4501   1-202-225-4656
             2428 RHOB                      georgia6 -at- hr -dot- house -dot- gov
     14 MI Conyers Jr., John (D)        1-202-225-5126   1-202-225-0072
             2426 RHOB                      jconyers -at- hr -dot- house -dot- gov
      1 CO Schroeder, Patricia (D)      1-202-225-4431   1-202-225-5842
             2307 RHOB
     18 TX Jackson-Lee, Sheila (D)      1-202-225-3816   1-202-225-3317
             1520 LHOB
      6 TN Gordon, Bart (D)             1-202-225-4231   1-202-225-6887
             2201 RHOB


4. Forward this alert to all of your wired friends.

________________________________________________________________________
WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE?

At this moment, there are several organizations with WWW sites that now
have, or will have, information about the net censorship legislation and
the National Day Of Protest:

American Civil Liberties Union (ftp://ftp.aclu.org/aclu/)
Center for Democracy and Technology (http://www.cdt.org/)
Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org/)
Electronic Privacy Information Center (http://www.epic.org/)
Wired Magazine (http://www.hotwired.com/special/indecent/)
Voters Telecommunications Watch (http://www.vtw.org/)

________________________________________________________________________
LIST OF PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS

In order to use the net more effectively, several organizations have
joined forces on a single Congressional net campaign to stop the
Communications Decency Act.


American Civil Liberties Union * American Communication Association *
American Council for the Arts * Arts & Technology Society * Association
of Alternative Newsweeklies * biancaTroll productions * Boston
Coalition for Freedom of Expression * Californians Against Censorship
Together * Center For Democracy And Technology * Centre for Democratic
Communications * Center for Public Representation * Citizen's Voice -
New Zealand * Cloud 9 Internet *Computer Communicators Association *
Computel Network Services * Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility * Cross Connection * Cyber-Rights Campaign * CyberQueer
Lounge * Dorsai Embassy * Dutch Digital Citizens' Movement * ECHO
Communications Group, Inc. * Electronic Frontier Canada * Electronic
Frontier Foundation * Electronic Frontier Foundation - Austin *
Electronic Frontiers Australia * Electronic Frontiers Houston *
Electronic Frontiers New Hampshire * Electronic Privacy Information
Center * Feminists For Free Expression * First Amendment Teach-In *
Florida Coalition Against Censorship * FranceCom, Inc. Web Advertising
Services * Friendly Anti-Censorship Taskforce for Students * Hands
Off!  The Net * Inland Book Company * Inner Circle Technologies, Inc. *
Inst. for Global Communications * Internet On-Ramp, Inc. * Internet
Users Consortium * Joint Artists' and Music Promotions Political Action
Committee * The Libertarian Party * Marijuana Policy Project *
Metropolitan Data Networks Ltd. * MindVox * MN Grassroots Party *
National Bicycle Greenway * National Campaign for Freedom of Expression
* National Coalition Against Censorship * National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force * National Public Telecomputing Network * National Writers Union
* Oregon Coast RISC * Panix Public Access Internet * People for the
American Way * Republican Liberty Caucus * Rock Out Censorship *
Society for Electronic Access * The Thing International BBS Network *
The WELL * Voters Telecommunications Watch

(Note: All 'Electronic Frontier' organizations are independent entities,
 not EFF chapters or divisions.)

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        End Alert
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** Tomohiro Hori **
thori001 -at- acs -dot- bu -dot- edu