IP: Groups band together to stop New York Internet bill

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

     DIGITAL CONSUMERS GROUP CALLS ON NEW YORK GOVERNOR
      TO VETO BILL FOUND HARMFUL TO ON-LINE BUSINESSES


A coalition of consumer and civil liberties activist groups today called
on New York Governor Pataki to veto S210/A3967, a "cyberporn" bill newly
passed by the state legislature. 


According to the Voters Telecommunications Watch, a watchdog group based
in New York and a member of the coalition, the bill would make commercial
service providers, including commercial services such as America Online
and Compuserve, liable for the content on their networks. Prodigy, the
third-largest on-line service, is based in New York State, and Delphi, the
fifth or sixth largest, recently moved its corporate offices to New York
from Massachussetts. 


The law would also affect direct Internet Service Providers such as Panix,
MindVox, and Echo. National providers such as Netcom and Pipeline, who
serve the New York region, would also be affected, as would local bulletin
board services (BBSs). 


"The community in cyberspace is not geographic", said Beth Haroules of
the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), "but consists of people
joined to together in a common interest, not a common location.  The
imposition of this particular law is unwieldy and will restrict the
desirability of New York as a place to conduct Internet business." The
NYCLU is a member of the coalition to stop the New York State bill.


"It is likely that any service providers could be held liable for
'knowing dissemination' simply by providing access to the Internet",
said Stanton McCandlish of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
The EFF is also a member of the coalition.


According to VTW, if Gov. Pataki signs the bill into law it could impose
significant burdens upon Internet Access businesses to screen the Internet
for their users, drive Internet content businesses from New York state,
and chill free speech. A large Internet service provider, such as Panix,
serves over 10,000 Internet users and employs over two dozen people. 


According to Molly E. Ker, General Manager of Echo, "National carriers
like Netcom might just withdraw from New York entirely. Local services
like ours are in a more difficult position." Jonah Seiger, of the
Center for Democracy and Technology, a third member of the coalition,
points out that the uncertainty generated by the vague provisions of
the legislation will have a chilling effect on on-line providers and
other businesses that depend on digital communications.


One potential solution, barring minors from on-line services, will
disenfranchise the next generation of on-line users, harm education, and
eventually place New York at a competitive disadvantage. According to
Bruce Fancher, owner of Mindvox, it is very difficult to do in practice,
as well as wrong in principle. 


Steven Cherry, of Voters Telecommunications Watch, points out that the
screening that might allow providers meet the provisions of the bill would
not only be an impossible burden, given the millions of documents a
provider is expected to make available to users, it would also be
ineffective in meeting the bills objectives. The same material that would
not be posted on communications servers located in New York State would be
posted in other states or other countries. "The only difference the bill
makes will be to harm New York State businesses." 


Given the interconnected nature of the Internet, consumers and
distributors of information can easily use servers located in other states
to circumvent the bills provisions. Cherry points out, "The bill will
inconvenience users, publishers and information providers, and service
providers, without materially affecting the underlying availability of
documents on the Internet. Its a pointless exercise in government
regulation, at a time when voters are clamoring for smaller, more
effective government." 


The Center for Democracy and Technology can be contacted at 
Jonah Seiger or Danny Weitzner, 202-637-9800.  CDT is on the WWW
at http://www.cdt.org/


For Panix Public Access, contact 
Alexis Rosen, Owner
15 W 18th ST. 5th Floor.
New York City, NY 10011-4604
Phone:(212) 741-4400
Email:info () panix com
WWW:http://www.panix.com/


For Echo Communications, contact
Molly Ker - General Manager,
179 Franklin Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10013
Phone:(212) 292-0900
WWW:http://www.echonyc.com/
Email:info () echonyc com


For Mindvox contact:
Contact:Bruce Fancher, Owner
1133 Broadway, Suite 1126
New York, NY 10010
Phone:212-843-5530
WWW:http://www.phantom.com/


The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Stanton McCandlish
P.O. Box 170190
San Francisco CA 94117 USA
+1 415 668 7171 (voice)
WWW:http://www.eff.org/
Email:ask () eff org


The NYCLU is the NY State affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.
You can reach Beth Haroules at NYCLU at 212-382-0557.  NYCLU is on the
WWW at http://www.aclu.org/.


Voters Telecommunications Watch is a volunteer organization, concentrating
on legislation as it relates to telecommunications and civil liberties. 
VTW publishes a weekly BillWatch that tracks relevant legislation as it
progresses through Congress. It publishes periodic Alerts to inform the
about immediate action it can take to protect its on-line civil liberties
and privacy.


More information about VTW can be found on-line at


  gopher -p 1/vtw gopher.panix.com
  www: http://www.vtw.org


or by writing to vtw () vtw org. The press can call (718) 596-2851 or
contact:


   Shabbir Safdar         Steven Cherry
   shabbir () vtw org        stc () vtw org


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