"Don't Curb Cyber-porn at the Expense 
                            of Freedom On-line"

                              Barry S. Fagin

[from the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, 4/1/95]


***
What explains the unquenchable urge to control the lives of others?
Why, when faced with a problem, do we so often reach for the heavy
hand of government?  Must we always use censorship, force, and punishment
instead of debate, restraint and tolerance?

On the Internet, up till now, the answer has been a resounding "No."  
This global network of computers is revolutionizing the way we live, 
work, and play.  Through the Internet, you can work at home, make
travel reservations, stay in touch with your kids at college, order
a pizza, and check your congressman's voting record, all with the
click of a mouse.  The Internet is the modern American frontier.  It is
largely unregulated, dizzyingly chaotic, and home to some of the
freest discussion and transmission of information anywhere on
the planet.  Censorship is virtually unheard of.

All that is about to change.  Recently, the "U.S. Communications Decency
Act" began making its way through Congress.  All indications are that
this bill is on a fast track, as part of telecommunications-reform 
legislation.  If passed and enforced, this act will cripple the Internet
as we know it.  While drafted with the best of intentions, as such laws often 
are, the practical consequences will be far more odious than the problems
it is trying to solve.

Briefly, the Communications Decency Act establishes criminal penalties 
for the transmission of images or text deemed lewd, obscene, or harassing.  
Based on the public statements of the bill's sponsors, the intent is 
to protect children from viewing inappropriate material.  A laudable goal, to 
be sure.

However, nobody can make you download smut.  If you're looking for
titillating material on the Internet, you won't find it by accident.
You've got to go looking for it, and it's not easy.  (Trust me, I know.
As a young hacker, I had a lot of time on my hands.)  Nowadays, computer
bulletin boards require filed proof of age before accessing adult areas; 
most are very security conscious.  The image of innocent victims being 
assaulted by unwanted information is simply not the reality of the 
Internet.

Furthermore, not every parent wants protection by Congress.  I am the
father of two small children.  I'm sure that, within the next few years,
they will acquire Internet access and begin "surfing" the net.  Before
they do, I will explain to them what is out there, what they are likely
to find and how they are expected to behave themselves.  But I insist
on deciding what material is appropriate for them and what is not.  No
one has the right to decide what my children should and should not see.

Most importantly, the Communications Decency Act could make it more
difficult for service providers to remain economically viable.  The
American portion of the Internet could be crippled, cutting us off from
a valuable resource whose full potential we are only now discovering.  
How ironic if, in the name of children everywhere, we threw out the baby
Internet with the bath water of obscenity.

If the history of mankind has taught us anything, it is that freedom
comes at a price.  Freedom means a higher crime rate than we might
otherwise prefer, because we worry that someday we might be convicted
wrongly.  Freedom means that we have to tolerate hateful and ignorant
speech, because we worry that someday our own views may not be popular.
Freedom means that we tolerate others accumulating wealth, even though we
may feel envious, because we realize that the forced redistribution of 
that wealth in the long run just makes us all poorer.  Freedom means that,
in time of war, good men and women will be asked to risk their lives
because we think it better to die free than to live as slaves.  All
these things are the price of freedom.

Freedom of information has its price as well.  A knowledgeable Internaut
can, with a little work, obtain access to stories and images that some
people find obscene.  In fact, with a little more work, she can access
material that most of us find obscene.  Finally, with a great deal of
work, she could find material so repugnant and morally offensive that
any sane person would be sickened by the thought of viewing it.  And
you know what?  I can live with that.

I can live with that because I know that repulsive material is one
infinitesimal part of what the Internet is all about.  I can live with
that because I know how to protect my children better than politicians
do.  I can live with that because, as a computing professional, I
recognize the absurdity of trying to determine what particular patterns
of electrical energy should and should not be allowed on a wire.  I
can live with that because I know, in the long run, that banning expression
of any kind has never solved anything.

But most of all, I can live with that because, as a free citizen of a
free country, it is the only way I want to live.  I just wish our elected
officials felt the same way.

***

Dr. Fagin is a professor of computer science at the U.S. Air Force
Academy.  He is a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an
organization that favors the extension of constitutional protections
into cyberspace.  The opinions expressed in this article are his alone,
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Air Force Academy
or the U.S. Air Force.

This article may be reproduced or excerpted in any form provided appropriate 
attribution is given and the above disclaimer is included.