Check out our interview with the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Mike Godwin.

Read what Tripod team has to say about the pending Communications Decency legislation.

A Quick Summary

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 Internet content providers such as Tripod, Hotwired, and Word.

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 may 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.

Outrageous proposals to censor the Internet demand that the Internet Community take swift and immediate action. If you are concerned, let Congress know that you will not tolerate their attempts to destroy this medium.

Contact key members of Congress through Tripod's Political Playbook. You can phone, fax, or email them, but just make sure you take some action!

Senate:
Ted Stevens (R-AK)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI)
Robert Dole (R-KS)
Wendell H. Ford (D-KY)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Conrad R. Burns (R-MT)
James J. Exon (D-NE)
Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC)
Larry Pressler (R-SD)
Slade Gorton (R-WA)
John D. Rockefeller (D-WV)

House:
Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
John Conyers Jr. (D-MI)
Patricia Schroeder (D-CO)
Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX)
Bart Gordon (D-TN)

If you want more information, check these sites:
Center for Democracy and Technology (http://www.cdt.org/)
Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org/)
Electronic Privacy Information Center (http://www.epic.org/)
Hotwired (http://www.hotwired.com/special/indecent/)
Voters Telecommunications Watch (http://www.vtw.org/)
American Civil Liberties Union (ftp://ftp.aclu.org/aclu/)