NOTE: This page is frequently updated! Please check at least once per week for new material needing YOUR immediate action.

• EFF Announces the Blue Ribbon Campaign - a grassroots initiative to oppose Internet censorship and support online freedom of speech, press and association.
  • Download Blue Ribbon campaign graphics for WWW pages, newsletters, stationery, and anything else you can think of.
  • What you can do now: Put Blue Ribbon graphics on your homepage, encourage your ISP to put it on their company WWW pages, wear a real blue ribbon on your shirt, and spread the word. See the Blue Ribbon Page for more info.

• Internet Censorship - Australia
  • New South Wales state government reveals plan to crack down on online "offensive material", on heels of similar bills from Western Australian and Victorian legislatures.
  • Article summarizing what's going on (as of Dec. 95)
  • Electronic Freedom March on Sydney in opposition to Net censorship (Scheduled for May 27, 1996).
  • For more info on net-liberty happenings in Australia, see:
    • Electronic Frontiers Austarlia
    • Australian Computer Society

• Internet Censorship - Germany
  • CompuServe (CIS) limits Usenet offerings at behest of Bavarian Prosecutor - According to a CompuServe press release, "During the past week, CompuServe Incorporated temporarily suspended access to more than 200 Internet newsgroups in response to a direct mandate from the prosecutors office in Germany. Each of the newsgroups that was suspended was specifically identified to CompuServe by the German authorities as illegal under German criminal law. CompuServe did not select any groups or determine the nature of the newsgroups that have been impacted by this action." (Subsequently, the German authorities claim that the opposite is true, and that CompuServe decided which and how many newsgroups to censor.)
    Groups on the banned list include clari.news.sex, clari.news.gay, soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi, and many other groups, which any reasonable person will agree, should be able to be distributed. This is another example, like the AOL "Breast Ban" of the chilling effect of government regulation of Internet content. EFF deplores actions of these types, and calls for people to fight for free speech on the Internet!

  • UPDATE: CIS reinstates ~200 newsgroups. (Feb. 13, 1996). Only a few remain blocked - CIS says five newsgroups "separately identified" as containing explicit child pornography will remain suspended pending further legal investigation. CompuServe is also introducing Cyber Patrol, an online content filtering tool for parents and other users.
    EFF approves of CIS's commitment to the empowering of parents and families to make their own choices about online content. CIS's decision not to restore access to newsgroups that may be dedicated to transmission of illegal material, or to the planning of crimes, is appropriate. CIS's earlier decision to cancel an undisclosed list of 200 newsgroups may have represented a misunderstanding as to what is legal under American or German law. To the extent that this resolution represents a clearer understanding of what is legal online, EFF endorses CIS's decision to reinstate almost all of the newsgroups.
  • Related News Articles:
    • San Francisco Chronicle
    • Wall Street Journal (Requires subscriber password & login)
    • San Jose Mercury News
    • New York Times, and Boston Globe
    • Onliner (im Deutsch)

• Online Privacy - United Kingdom
  • UK Government crypto key "escrow" system secretly developed - about to be sprung on unsuspecting populace
  • More info, when available, will be here.

• Internet & Art Censorship - New York (State)
  • The New York State Assembly and Senate have passed a bill (A.3967/S.210-D) that would make online service providers liable for the content on their networks. The bill would prohibit the knowing "dissemination" of material that depicts "actual or simulated nudity,[or] sexual conduct", that is "harmful to minors" and is communicated to a minor through a "computer communications system". Additionally, S.210-D would make it a felony to intentionally engage a minor in an explicit, sexually-oriented communication via a computer or on-line service, and then make contact with the minor. It provides for penalties of up to seven years in prison for certain offenses. If Gov. Pataki signs this bill into law it could impose significant burdens upon Internet Access businesses to screen the Internet for their users, drive Internet content businesses from New York state, and chill free speech. The bill is vague and over-broad, may force service providers to become censors, ignores existing parental control technology & services, and lumps most responsbility on to the shoulders of service providers.
    
  • As of Feb. 7: the bill is being altered due to pressure from the Net, to prevent Internet providers' liability for users' actions. Keep the pressure up. State Sen. William R. Sears is to introduce the chapter amendment, and the legislature is asking the Governor to NOT sign the bill as it stands, even though it was already passed.
  • See the Voters' Telecom Watch WWW Site for more info.
  • New York City
    • - ARTIST (Artists' Response to Illegal State Tactics) action alert & update on New York City Parks Department's unconstitutional censorship of artists through imposition of licensing (violator's art confiscated and sold to swell coffers of the city government). Mar. 1996.

• Intellectual-Property-based Censorship of the Net from Georgia State Legislature
  • UPDATE: This bill was signed into law today by the governor. The fight will now have to move to the courts, to have the new law ruled unconstitutional. (Apr. 18, 1996) A new bill to repeal the bad law has been introduced (May 2, 1996) - text not yet available.
  • Text of, and info on, new Georgia state law that makes it a crime to use someone else's trademark in an email address, domain name, etc., that criminalizes anonymity and pseudonymity, and does other incredibly stupid things
  • EFF opposes legislation (Apr. 16, 1996)

• Internet Censorship - Other Jurisdictions
  • No coherent info avaiable right this moment. Please send updates to mech@eff.org. Interested in info on US state, and foreign national censorship legislation/regulation/enforcement.

Links to Related EFF On-Site Resources

EFF Foreign/State/Local Legislation & Regulation Archive

EFF Foreign/State/Local Legal Issues & Cases Archive

Links to Related Off-Site Resources

Center for Democracy & Technology's Action Items Page

FACT's First Amendment and Censorship Alerts