BEC.SHAPIN@USC-ECL.ARPA (Ted Shapin) (11/14/85)
BBSLAW01.MSG From Chip Berlet, Public Eye Magazine.
HELP FIGHT BAD BBS LAWS - 01
FEDERAL LEGISLATION RESTRICTING BBS OPERATION DUE SOON!
POST THIS MESSAGE ON EVERY BBS IN AMERICA!
A new federal law that would outlaw some BBS systems
and severely restrict all others could be passed by Congress
in 1985. A mobilization of SYSOPS and BBS users is urgently
needed to ensure we have a chance to speak out on the new law.
Watch BBS's for messages with "BBSLAWXX.MSG" headers or
"HELP FIGHT BAD BBS LAWS - XX" titles. An ad-hoc group will be
posting these messages on BBS's and the commercial systems.
LAWMUG SYSOP Paul Bernstein and I have learned the law could
be introduced as soon as MID JULY! Although aspects of the new
law have been discussed for months by "experts" in Washington,
NOT ONE SYSOP WAS CONSULTED until a June 20 conference in Chicago
which Paul and I attended.
Vague language in another telecommunications law already
introduced in Congress might also restrict BBS activities.
We urged the Congressional aide involved in that legislation to
exempt BBS systems until we could let SYSOPS and lawyers study
the language more carefully. We must also monitor this law.
The law restricting BBS operations was prompted by panic
over the possibility that children (minors) might read
pornographic material, and by the wave of publicity regarding
the malicious hackers and illegal credit card and phone
information posted on BBS's by electronic graffiti vandals.
Among the ideas SERIOUSLY DISCUSSED for the new federal law
restricting BBS's are provisions which would require:
* Registration of all BBS's as a public utility.
* BBS users to log in with, and post their legal names.
* SYSOPS to keep a log of all names of users.
* SYSOPS to keep a log of all messages & access times.
* Criminal penalties for SYSOPS whose BBS's contain had
illegal messages posted on them - even if the SYSOP
was not aware of the message and had not been informed
the message was there nor given a chance to remove it!
While the law is currently only being discussed, there is
much pressure to restrict and regulate BBS's. A good BBS law
could protect BBS's and SYSOPS. A bad law could destroy BBS's
in their infancy as a telecommunications phenomena.
BBS's put the individual back into mass society in the age
of telecommunications. BBS's encourage information sharing and
remove barriers to discussion posed by social status, wealth,
class, race, sex, physical size, and many physical handicaps.
BBS's encourage the democratic process and are a powerful new
communications system which deserves Constitutional protection
and First Amendment Rights.
NO LEGISLATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION! There will be differing
views of wording, law, and tactics; all should be given a chance
to be heard. Congress should delay passage of any BBS legislation
until BBS users and SYSOPS have a chance to discuss the legal
issues and make their opinions known in a series of Congressional
hearings. Our discussion must start immediately and we must
organize to block bad BBS legislation until our voices are heard.
We share the responsibility. Time is short. Spread the word.
It is the electronic age. We are all Paul Revere....
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