**** ALERT **** 01/ From: buzz.lightyear@mdcs.com (Buzz Lightyear) Date: Thu, 08 Feb 1996 00:00:00 +0000 JOIN HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF OTHER INTERNET USERS IN * 48 HOURS OF PROTEST * AFTER PRESIDENT CLINTON SIGNS THE BILL THAT WILL CENSOR THE INTERNET Update: -Latest News: Congress passed the net censorship language on 2/1/96. -What You Can Do Now: Help demonstrate the extent of the impact of the Internet Censorship legislation. Join Hundreds of thousands of Internet Users in an International protest for 48 hours after Clinton Signs the bill. CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT Feb 3, 1996 (expires Feb 29, 1996) PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT This alert and coalition coordinated by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (vtw@vtw.org) ________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS The Latest News What You Can Do Now Chronology of the CDA For More Information List Of Participating Organizations ________________________________________________________________________ THE LATEST NEWS Last week Congress approved sweeping restrictions on online speech and conduct, imposing fines of $250,000 and jail sentences of 2 years for anyone who makes "indecent" material available in a public forum online. This legislation threatens the very existence of the Internet as a viable means of free expression, education, and political discourse. Despite loud objections from civil liberties groups and the public, the measure is part of a massive telecommunications bill that President Clinton has already pledged to sign. Although you should feel free to continue to express your objections directly to the President, there are other ways to express our outrage for this legislation. The President is expected to sign this bill into law during the week of Feb 5-9, 1996. For 48 hours after Clinton signs the Telecommunications Reform bill into law, join hundreds of thousands of Internet users everywhere to show the far reaching impact this bill will have on all Internet users. TURN YOUR WORLD WIDE WEB PAGES BLACK with white lettering to demonstrate that the Internet will not accept this kind of second class treatment from the United States Government. ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW 1. For 48 hours after Clinton signs the net censorship language in the Telecomm bill into law, TURN YOUR WORLD WIDE WEB PAGES BLACK with white lettering. To know when the bill is signed, check these sources: Newsgroups: alt.society.civil-disob Email:vtw-announce@vtw.org (watch for mail on this list) WWW:http://www.vtw.org/ Finger:vtw@panix.com You can also just watch CNN; they'll announce the signing of the bill. To turn your pages black with white lettering, simply add the following tag to your World Wide Web pages: (put these all in <>'s) BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#FFFFFF" link="0099ff" vlink="#00ff99" Put this right after your <head></head> tags, and before any </body> tags. To explain to people who may be confused by the color change, temporarily add the following link to your page: <a href="http://www.vtw.org/speech/">My World Wide Web Pages are black for 48 hours to protest second-class treatment from the US Government for free speech. Read about it at this WWW page.</a> (Also put these in <>'s) The Center for Democracy and Technology has also agreed to mirror a similar page at URL:http://www.cdt.org/speech.html If your pages get lots of hits from services that cache their pages like America Online, you may wish to start turning your pages black early. Please try and wait though until Clinton signs the bill, for maximum effect. (Continued to next message) --- * OLXWin 1.00a * Up