IP: FINAL more on DO READ!!!! Justice Department crackdown on we

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

Guess my only final comment is if the reporters were confused then how about confusion of the ACTUAL Committee Members 
about both the law and the technology they were charged to examine. 

Dave


> From: "Michael Sims" <jellicle () inch com>
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 10:57:50 -0400
>
>
> With all due respect, there's a lot of confusion here.  Maria 
> Seminerio, Adam Powell and Declan McCullagh, the reporters who've 
> been spreading this FUD, have willfully disregarded the actual law in 
> question - this story is based solely on a single interview with two 
> members of a government committee, who seem to be as confused as the 
> reporters they were talking to.
>
> The actual law, available at:
>
> http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/508law.html
>
> makes no mention of any standards regarding the general public's 
> websites, or even government suppliers.  It says solely that Federal 
> government agencies must ensure that their electronic services are 
> equally available to disabled Federal employees and disabled 
> citizens.  The implementation date is two years from August 1998, so 
> it's not exactly right around the corner, either.  That's it; nothing 
> else; there's no stealth plan to take over the internet and make 
> people publish their websites in Braille.
>
> Here's a basic FAQ on section 508:
>
> http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/deptofed.html
>
> It's sad that some reporters are totally incapable of using 
> outside sources to verify that their stories are correct and 
> truthful.  A simple reading of the actual government law would have 
> shown any of the three reporters that the story is wildly inaccurate, 
> and common sense would have told them that a law regulating the 
> general public's websites in such a manner would also be wildly 
> unconstitutional.
>
>
>
> --
> Michael Sims                            The Censorware Project
>                                         http://censorware.org
> The Supreme Court has stated that the public interest served by FOIA is the
> interest in letting citizens know 'what their government is up to.' 489 US. at 773.