IP: more on Exon proposal and NYT

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Date: Sat, 2 Dec 95 14:09:10 EST
From: rick () cra org (Rick Weingarten)


Contrary to what you may have  seen in an article today on the front page
of the New York Times, many  the public interest community have certainly
not agreed to the currently  negotiated language, which, as it is written,
still constitutes a significant 1st Amendment threat to  education,
libraries and community information services. In fact,  I know of no public
interest group other than CDT that has signed on to the latest proposed
language, and that includes library and higher ed associations, as well as
civil liberties groups.


The statement in the article that the revised criminal penalties provisions
are preferable to the original  Exon language  is questionable. The
industry likely finds it preferable because it includes  Cox-Wyden language
regarding liability immunity for filtering.


It is true, as far as I can tell, that the proposedl has been presented as
a "take it or leave it" compromise that will be passed by the conference
committee on Tuesday  and that the information service industry have
evidently signed on.


Rick Weingarten