THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602090502
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Hundreds of ``home pages'' on the Internet's World Wide Web began turning black Thursday afternoon in protest against a provision in the new telecommunications law that bans the transmission of ``indecent'' material over computer networks.
The protest could potentially be seen by as many as 7 million Americans, the number whose computers are capable of connecting to the Web. Those who darkened their Web pages included congressmen, political parties, the city of Houston, radio stations, publications and hundreds of individuals.
The provision they were protesting bans the transmission of ``indecent'' material, and calls for two-year prison terms and $250,000 fines for violators.
The language was a victory for conservative groups like the Chesapeake-based Christian Coalition, which launched a phone campaign to get it passed. Coalition executive director Ralph Reed called the provision a victory for parents and children, and said ``we must not allow the Internet to become an electronic peep show.''
Civil liberties groups, which tried to prevent the language from getting into the bill, consider it a frontal assault on the First Amendment and are suing to block it.
``This has a chilling effect on free speech,'' said Jerry Berman, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, one of the protest organizers. ``The indecency rules that apply to broadcast are intrusive here, and unconstitutional.''
But many people wanted to do more than count on the courts, said Steven Cherry, a founder of Voters Telecommunications Watch, another protest organizer.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in an on-line explanation of why he joined the protest, said ``the on-line censorship provisions should be repealed, and I plan to introduce legislation to do just that.''
Leahy, one of five senators to vote against the bill, said he does not ``condone the transmission of obscene material or child pornography on the Net.'' But he said the language in the bill creates ``unconstitutional restrictions on what we can say on line.''
An administration official said that President Clinton shared some of the protesters' concern about the indecency language in the bill, and said the issues needed to be resolved quickly. by CNB