"The Internet may be fairly regarded as...

[McKenzie]

...a never-ending world-wide conversation. The government may not interrupt that conversation. As the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed, the Internet deserves the highest protection from governmental intrusion."

U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell, in the opinion of a panel of federal judges who issued an injunction blocking the government from enforcing provisions of the federal telecommunications law.

No doubt many of you will know about this opinion; it has been around for a few years.

Without the internet it would be very difficult to get the truth out and much easier to suppress it. That has become clear to me over the last few years and particularly so in the case of the US elections where issues develop within a very short time frame and sometimes need an immediate response to fraud and other dirty tricks. So if there is ever a threat to the independence of the internet fight it with everything you have. The internet brings us all closer together, is a wonderful educator and is the greatest enabler of free exchange of information ever invented. In short, it is the essence of democracy and open communication...as the ongoing debate on tomorrow's elections clearly demonstrates.

One other thing...millions of people outside the US, such as I, are going to be watching the outcome of tomorrow's elections with intense interest and not a little apprehension. We NEED you guys to kick these bastards out of power so GOTV and don't let us down. In return, I will post a clip of me cycling around my study on a unicycle while playing the trombone...just for your amusement...ummm...one of these days.

Edit: A couple of html glitches in the text

[porphyrian]

1. Kick for trombone unicycling. - n/t

[Lex]

2. Link?

I'd like to read the entire opinion by Judge Dalzell.

:hi:

[McKenzie]

3. can't find the opinion but this article might be of interest

I had the quotation on a text file from waaay back and decided to post it becuase I think it's stiil highly relevant today.

Regards

http://news.com.com/CDA+supporters+vow+to+fight+on/2100-1023_3-214547.html?tag=nl

[moodforaday]

4. Look for CDA

Communications Decency Act of 1996, overturned by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. Signed by Clinton, no less. That was the day my blinders dropped.

I remember the day well - I spent all of it in front of the computer, reading people's reactions. There were hardly any websites of note then, it was mostly mailing lists and usenet. If you don't know about CDA and the uproar it caused, you absolutely MUST read a retired judge's challenge to the act, posted the day Clinton signed it or the next, you'll love it:

http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Internet_censorship_bills/russell_0296_indecent.article

It begins like this:

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- You motherf***ers in Congress have dropped over the edge of the earth this time.

Except he doesn't use asterisks. He packed it full of obscenities on purpose: to show it could be legally published in print, but CDA made it a federal offence to publish it online. The judge pulled no punches and was hoping to get charged under the CDA, so he could challenge it in court. Please read it, it's an awe-inspiring model of civil disobedience.

CDA was also what brought about John Perry Barlow's "Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace":

http://homes.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html

Those days... when freedom of speech on the Internet was the single most important cause I knew of.

[htuttle]

5. I was just going to post a link to Barlow's Declaration

A glorious bit of writing it is -- the first paragraph says it all:

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.

I was among those who's web page went black that one day (can't remember the actual date now) to protest the CDA, and I also had a page up in that massive 'ring of links' that Weiner tried to set up for the same reason. Finally, in the proto-webzine I was publishing at the time, I posted an editorial that included the 'seven dirty words' in a very large typeface. But somehow, even with all that, I'd missed that article from Judge Russell -- thanks for posting it.

And yeah, it all makes me kind of nostalgic for the days when that was the worst problem we seemed to have...