Telecom law sparks protest from students

Many black outMany black outWWW pages In the wake of the recently passed federal telecommunications reform law, which could heavily restrict freedom of expression over the Internet, students across campus have begun to launch protest. Several have blacked out their own homepages, or placed blue ribbon graphics on their homepages in honor of free speech. Data Communications and Computing Services Executive Director Dan Updegrove said he is concerned that the law would affect PennNet sites such as Rape Counseling and Health Services, as well as some on-line literary analysis. The bill, which President Clinton signed into law last Wednesday, outlaws indecent material that could be viewed by a minor over a computer network. Transmitting or providing such material could be punishable by $250,000 in fines and two years in prison. The signing was followed by 21 lawsuits on Thursday morning challenging the constitutionality of the law. The most notable of these was a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Nationwide, World Wide Web sites, such as Yahoo, an Internet directory service and Netscape, a widely used Web browser, responded by changing the backgrounds of their sites to black. Yahoo also called for all sites to follow their lead in declaring "black Thursday." Sites remained blacked out for 48 hours in protest. The new law could have severe ramifications at the University. Updegrove said the problem stems from the fact that since some freshmen are under the age of 18, violation of the regulation could lead to lawsuits against the University. But Updegrove maintained that the effects will depend on the courts' interpretation of the law. "In a university this committed to free speech, obviously it will intersect with a narrow definition of the bill," he said. "It is fair to say that all universities are tracking the progress of this bill and the lawsuits with great care." The new law has already affected several of the most popular homepages at the University, several of which used to include pornography. Eric Meyer, who maintains the second most popular home page on the University system, said he removed the extensive pornography on his page last week. In its place, Meyer provided a short statement. "Due to the increasing pressure in the federal government to regulate the Internet vis-a-vis the Exon addendum to the telecommunications bill, I am hereby removing all explicit material from my homepage until something firm and legal has been resolved," it read. "I apologize to everyone in the Internet community who has travelled through my page and enjoyed it. I wish I could have kept this material, but I have no intentions of going to jail." But the law could also affect non-pornographic sites on PennNet, according to Updegrove. For example, Updegrove said he fears that sites such as the University's OncoLink, which contains information on cancers of the breast, cervix and prostate, may become illegal under the new law. And some classes in literature, psychology and biology, which keep their syllabi or readings on the Web may also be affected. Computer users are currently awaiting the U.S. district court decision on the ACLU's suit to gain a temporary injunction to block the law. After last week's one-hour hearing, the court decided to allow the U.S. government until next Wednesday to prepare and file its arguments. Wednesday will also mark the 50th anniversary of Penn's unveiling of ENIAC, the world's first computer.

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