more on Transcript of Sen. Stevens' remarks on Internet "indecency"laws

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 09:40:41 -0500
To: Richard Wiggins <richard.wiggins () gmail com>
Cc: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Transcript of Sen. Stevens' remarks on Internet
"indecency"laws

Richard,

Stevens was asked about cable indecency laws at the press conference on
Friday and his response, as you say, was primarily about cable and
satellite indecency.

But part of his response also talked about regulating indecency on
broadband and VoIP.

It is muddle-headed in the extreme to say: "Well, Stevens is going to
target cable and satellite first, and that was the bulk of his response,
so Internet users have nothing to worry about. We'll just blissfully
ignore that the chairman of a Senate committee drafting indecency laws
is talking about broadband and VoIP. It must have been a slip of the
tongue! Of course the Senate could never do anything *that* silly! We
trust our politicians never to grandstand on indecency!"

This is something akin to the Communications Decency Act being
reintroduced that we're talking about here, after all, if Stevens
actually goes ahead with this idea.

The ACLU wasn't as blase about Stevens' remarks, and the American Family
Association yesterday endorsed the concept of Internet indecency
regulation (though in a different bill for tactical reasons). You may
wish to read this for background:
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5618332.html

Best,
Declan


Richard Wiggins wrote:
> Declan has mislabeled this story. The quoted remarks pertain primarily
> to cable TV.   Although there are references to Voip and broadband,
> Stevens is currently riled up about television, not the Internet.  The
> issue at hand is Stevens' proposal to treat cable television more like
> broadcast TV; the latter has always been under Federal regulation for
> decency, while the former has not.  This is a broader story than the
> Internet, although if Stevens ultimately seeks to regulate any content
> over any wire, it could someday affect Internet content.

------ End of Forwarded Message


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