Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: a letter on the CDA from a 16 year old
From: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 1996 11:08:51 -0500
From: Timothy Brown <tbrown () cobalt i1 net> Mr. President (and by extension, the White House Correspondence staff) As a longstanding citizen of the United States and an avid user of the Internet, I must respectfully object to the legislation which now has passed the Senate and the House, and I urge you to veto it. This legislation will destroy the business of small ISPs who have put millions of dollars into the United States economy. Most of these upstanding businessmen do nothing else for a primary job, instead investing money and time into Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who spend months without a profit or even a return of investment, in most cases years. If you pass this legislation, most of these providers will go out of business. It's absolutely ludicrous to think that the providers of networking service to companies and individuals support, or are liable for, pornographic distribution to minors. First, let me tell you a little about myself, and why I find this to be true. I am a 16-year old high school student, living in the state of Missouri. I have worked (and do work) at many local Internet Service Providers, sometimes on a pay basis, most of the time on a volunteer basis. I am also a computer consultant. I feel myself firmly in control of my future and destiny in this great nation that all Americans have. However .... I seriously object to the legislation you are passing, which will put myself (as a consultant and volunteer) out of business, my friends out of business for things they have very little (if any) control over, and the commercial Internet in general. You, by passing this bill, will put the Universities and other educational institutions I am currently looking at in jepoardy of going out of business (for the privates) and losing Internet access (for the others), because the Internet spans most of the Universities in the U.S. who also are carriers of the Internet. What you need to do is target *individuals* who do this, not the providers. You need to target *child molesters* and track them down from their usage of the Internet. If you seriously believe that the U.S. can ever be rid of the influence of pornography, then take action on the Internet to proceed to put in better controls and access information, providing a trail for your investigators to follow. Do not alienate us. Internet users are a large part of the voting America, even if I am not. Do not eliminate my job, or the future I pursue, as I am an Internet consultant. The next issue I will bring up: enforcability. Mr. President (and the WH Correspondence center) - the Internet spans in excess of one hundred countries and thousands of miles. Many of these child pornographers are outside of the United States. Mr. President, I am a minor. I ask you, as a minor, to please stop this legislation due to the ludicrous nature of it. Senator Exon has no idea what he is doing. If you are bent on passing this bill, beforehand, please hold hearings of experts before doing so. Be more educated about this before you proceed to pass this bill. This is a plea from one of your most empassioned supporters, speaking, generally, for voting Americans everywhere. Thank you. Your Constituent, Timothy Brown (tbrown () i1 net)
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