Date: Fri, 09 Feb 96 20:42:34 GMT

Permission to repost granted.

Thoughts on Gandhian Resistance to the Communications Decency Act

The Son of Communications Decency Act presents us with a perfect opportunity for putting Gandhian principles to work. This short article quickly covers a series of relevant actions.

1.) Nothing you do should be anonymous. If you choose to post nudity or other material, do it in your own name. You want to invite prosecution! Anonymous postings and the flow of material through them are easy to stop. Tens of thousands of normal postings from sites all over the country are not.

2.) Should the government start prosecuting individuals, do not be cowed into withholding material. Keep posting what you've been posting.

3.) Seek out pieces in technical violation of the law instead of blatant pornography. A few examples: pictures of works of art such as the Venus de Milo; human rights accounts of the rapes in Bosnia (much of Amnesty International's materials are now "indecent" under the new law -- how do we communicate the horror?); quotations from online literature, especially classics; birth-control information; pro-Life material; AIDs awareness material; anthropological studies on incest and circumcism; etc. Post comments to newsgroups and set up web pages with this material.

4.) If you set up a protest web-page, please let me know. I will not link pornography, but if it is a valuable page (like those mentioned above), I will place it at:

http://www.best.com/~gazissax/silence/shame.html

5.) If you are prosecuted, let the rest of us know. Many net citizens will be willing to help pay for your defense and a few lawyers might come forward to help you on a pro bono basis.

The main idea is to flood the government with SO MANY cases that enforcement of the law becomes impossible. This is a stupid law and it calls for provoking the government into stupid actions. Many in the FCC are probably sympathetic to us and may initiate prosecution for no other reason than to put
the law to a well-deserved constitutional test. Do not consider the FCC your enemy. Give them lots of evidence and force them to take action.

Regards,
Joel GAzis-SAx