X-Message-Number: 5046
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 07:55:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Small Net Correction

> From: "Keith F. Lynch" <>
> Subject: Re: FWD: ONLINE USERS STILL SMALL MINORITY

> I'd like to know the actual question they asked.  This is incredibly
> muddled.  Pornography is *already* illegal online (and offline) (in
> the US), and always has been.  Were people agreeing that it should
> remain so?

Keith, obscenity is a violation of federal law, but not pornography, with
the exception of child pornography created using real human subjects. Some
senators want to make adult pornography illegal as well--online, at least.
Some states (such as New Jersey) already have their own laws that Exon
would be proud of, theoretically making indecent language (whatever that
means) illegal online; these laws have been adapted from laws prohibiting
harassing phone calls and have been enacted with zero publicity. None of
them has yet been tested in court. The ACLU has a new electronic
newsletter on this kind of subject, and I've recently done an article
about it for Wired magazine that I hope will appear early next year.
Anyone who wants more info can email me direct at  You can
also check alt.censorship on Usenet once in a while. This of course has
nothing to do with cryonics; but I know that many cryonicists value
freedom of speech online, so I thought I'd just give the references here. 

--Charles Platt


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