The "Communications Decency Act", passed as section 502 of a major
telecommunications reform bill on February 8th, 1996 ("Black
Thursday"). The CDA made it a federal crime in the USA to send a
communication which is "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or
indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another
person." It also threatened with imprisonment anyone who "knowingly"
makes accessible to minors any message that "describes, in terms
patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards,
sexual or excretory activities or organs".
While the CDA was sold as a measure to protect minors from the
putative evils of pornography, the repressive political aims of the
bill were laid bare by the Hyde amendment, which intended to outlaw
discussion of abortion on the Internet.
To say that this direct attack on First Amendment free-speech rights
was not well received on the Internet would be putting it mildly. A
firestorm of protest followed, including a February 29th 1996 mass
demonstration by thousands of netters who turned their {home page}s
black for 48 hours. Several civil-rights groups and
computing/telecommunications companies mounted a constitutional
challenge. The CDA was demolished by a strongly-worded decision
handed down in 8th-circuit Federal court and subsequently affirmed by
the U.S. Supreme Court on 26 June 1997 ("White Thursday"). See also
{Exon}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {Exon}{fscking}]