The Communication Decency Act: The Fight For Freedom of Speech on the Internet :: essays research papers

The Communication Decency make for The dispute For Freedom of Speech on the Internet     The Communication Decency Act is a gamin which has insulted our flop asAmerican citizens. It a bill which SHOULD non pass. Ill share with you howInternet users are reacting to this bill, and why they say it isunconstitutional.     Some individuals disagree with one type of the bill. According tohttp//thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/z?c104s.652.enr, which has theCommunications Decency Act on-line for public viewing, "Whoever uses anInternet service to send to a soulfulness or persons below 18 years of age......anycomment, request, suggestion, proposal, image,........or anything anxious asmensurable by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities ororgans.....shall be fined $250,000 if the person(s) is/are under 18.......imprisoned not more than dickens years.......or both."     The wording of that sec tion seems sensible. However, if this one littleparagraph is approved, many rates much(prenominal) as the Venus de Milo site located athttp//www.paris.org/Musees/ flipper/Treasures/gifs/venusdemilo.gif the SistineChapel athttp//www.oir.ucf.edu/wm/paint/auth/michelangelo/michelangelo.creation andMichelangelos David http//fileroom.aaup.uic.edu/FileRoom/images/image201.gifcould not be accessed and used by anybody under the age of 18. These works ofart and many other museum pictures would not be available. The bill says thesesites show indecent pictures.     The next part of the CDA has everybody in a big legal fit. We, concernedInternet users, took the writers of this bill to court, and we won.     This part of the bill states "Whoever....makes, creates, orsolicits...........any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image, or othercommunication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent.......with mark to annoy, abuse, threa ten, or harass another person......by means of anInternet page..........shall be fined $250,000 under title 18......imprisonednot more than two years....or both......"     The writer of that paragraph of the bill forgot something. It violatesthe constitution. The First Amendment states "Congress shall make nolaw....prohibiting or abridging the freedom of speech......the right of thepeople peaceably to assemble.....and to petition the Government.............."     This bill does exactly that. It says we cannot express our feelingscleanly. I understand that what may be of interest to me, may be offensive toothers. Many people put up warning signs on their websites stating, "This sitemay contain offensive material. If you are easily offended you may not want tocome here." If the writers of this bill would have listed that as a requirementthere would have been no trouble.     Here is the way I look at it. I think that some things should beban on the Internet. Child pornography, for instance, is already outlaw(prenominal),so it follows that it should also be illegal on the Internet. Besides,psychologically, it damages the children involved.     Something else that should be banned from the Internet are " nag"