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Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition Trial Update No. 8
Pre-Trial Update - April 11, 1996 12:00 noon ET
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http://www.cdt.org/ciec/
ciec-info@cdt.org
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CIEC UPDATES intended for members of the Citizens Internet
Empowerment Coalition. CIEC Updates are written and edited by the
Center for Democracy and Technology (http://www.cdt.org). This
document may be reposted as long as it remains in total.
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** 40,000 Netizens Vs. U.S. Department of Justice. **
* The Fight To Save Free Speech Online *
Contents:
o Pre-Trial Update - Government To Present Its Defense of CDA
Beginning Friday April 12
* List of Government Witnesses Expected to Testify
* Schedule for Remainder of Trial
o Transcripts of the Frist Two Days of Testimony Now Online!
o Subscription Information
o More Information on CIEC and the Center for Democracy and Technology
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(1) GOVERNMENT TO BEGIN ITS DEFENSE OF CDA BEGINNING FRIDAY 4/12
The fight to overturn the Communications Decency Act will enter its second
phase on Friday April 12 with testimony from witnesses called by the
Government in defense of the CDA. The government is expected to call
several witnesses (listed below) who will argue that the Communications
Decency Act is necessary and is the "least restrictive means" of protecting
children from "indecent" and "patently offensive" material on the Internet.
Although the government has given some indication of its strategy for
defending the CDA during the first three days of testimony (see CIEC Trial
Bulletin No.7, 4/1/96), over the next two days we will learn a great deal
more about the government's position. The government is also expected to
conduct its own Internet demonstration, and is likely to try and show the
court examples of sexually explicit material available on the Internet.
Witnesses scheduled to testify on Friday April 12 and Monday April 15:
* Howard Schmidt, Supervisory Special Agent, Director of Air Force
Office of Special Investigation, Computer Crime Investigations
(Government Witness)
* Dan Olsen, Professor of Computer Science, Brigham Young University
(Government Witness)
* Albert Vezza (Associate Director, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and
Chairman of the World Wide Web Consortium), on behalf of the Citizens
Internet Empowermnet Coalition. Vezza was unable to testify at the April
1 hearing due to scheduling conflicts.
Government witnesses will be cross examined by CIEC and ACLU lawyers. CIEC
and ACLU lawyers will also have an opportunity to present rebuttal
testimony during a hearing scheduled for April 26, and again in closing
arguments scheduled for June 3.
OVERVIEW OF EXPECTED TESTIMONY FOR APRIL 12 AND 15
Albert Vezza, the last witness to be called on behalf of the plaintiffs,
will explain to the court how PICS works and why it offers parents the
ability to protect children from unwanted material in a less restrictive
means than the CDA.
Howard Schmidt is expected to conduct a live Internet Demonstration in
which he will show the court some of the 'good' material on the Internet,
as well as some of the sexually-explicit material available to minors.
Dan Olsen is expected to testify that the PICS standards (which enable
multiple, third party labeling and content selection) are too cumbersome
and will not be effective. Based on his declaration, Olsen will instead
propose his own system under which content providers would tag material
with a code (-L18) indicating that the material is not appropriate for
those under 18.
The government is expected to argue that such a content labeling system
would be an appropriate "good faith defense" to prosecution under the CDA.
Interestingly, it is not clear from the language of the CDA that such
system would constitute a "good faith defense" to prosecution, or what
material would require a tag. These issues will be raised by CIEC and ACLU
attorneys during cross examination.
SCHEDULE FOR REMAINDER OF THE TRIAL
April 12 - 15 Government Witnesses (and final CIEC witness)
April 26 Plaintiff's Rebuttal Testimony
May 13 Post-hearing briefs and proposed findings of law and
fact from both sides will be filed
June 3 Closing Arguments (each side is given 2 hours)
CDT will post a summary of Friday's testimony shortly after the testimony
concludes for the day (and after we travel back down to Washington DC).
Previous issues of CIEC Trial Bulletins are available on CDT's world wide
web page (http://www.cdt.org/)
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(2) Transcripts of 3/21 and 3/22 Hearings Available Online
Transcripts of the first two days of testimony are now available online.
Transcripts of the 4/1 hearing will be posted soon.
To view the transcripts, visit:
http://www.cdt.org/ciec/transcripts/index.html
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(3) Subscription Information
As CIEC members, you have been invited to join this list in order to
receive news updates and other information relevant to the CIEC challenge
to the Communications Decency Act. To subscribe, visit
http://www.cdt.org/ciec and join the Coalition.
If you ever want to remove yourself from this list, send email to
ciec-members-request@cdt.org
with 'unsubscribe ciec-members' in the SUBJECT LINE (w/o the 'quotes').
Leave the body of your message blank.
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(4) For More Information
For more information on the CIEC challenge, including the text of the
complaint and other relevant materials:
* World Wide Web -- http://www.cdt.org/ciec/
* General Information about CIEC -- ciec-info@cdt.org
* Copy of the Complaint -- ciec-docs@cdt.org
* Specific Questions Regarding the
Coalition, incuding Press Inquiries -- ciec@cdt.org
* General information about the
Center for Democracy and Technology -- info@cdt.org
-- end ciec-update.8 4/11/96