SPA Blackens Web Page to Protest Communications Decency Act

Joins Web-Wide Protest

Washington, D.C., Feb. 8, 1996 In conjunction with thousands of Web Sites
around the country, the SPA turned its home page black at 11:00 this
morning. It will remain black for 48 hours in protest of Congress passing
and President Clinton signing the new telecommunications bill, which
includes the Communications Decency Act that restricts freedom of speech,
encourages censorship, and will stifle the evolution of the Internet.

While SPA supports and applauds significant portions of telecommunications
reform bill, we are strongly opposed to a specific provision that will
handcuff on-line providers and end users and quite likely violate First
Amendment rights. The Communications Decency Act would impose jail terms
of up to two years and fines up to $250,000 ($500,000 for a company) on
anyone who "knowingly" posts "indecent" material in a place accessible to
minors, such as the World Wide Web. This "indecency" standard creates
unprecedented criminal liability for private expression that may be
construed as pornographic or otherwise unsuitable for minors. The legal
standard is vague, unconstitutional, and will choke-off free expression
and use of the Internet.

In response to the President's signature, several consumer and civil
liberties groups are poised to challenge the indecency standard in court.
In addition, web-masters across the nation are joining forces in the
48-hour blackout of their web sites as a protest. Additional information
about the protest can be found at http://www.vtw.org, or
http://www.cdt.org. These are two of the coalition organizations
coordinating the information regarding passage of this act and the
protest.

SPA and its members are committed to providing parents and other consumers
with simple and effective information about the content of entertainment
software. Last year, SPA and other software associations made good on this
commitment by establishing the Recreational Software Advisory Council. By
now, this private and independent organization has assigned objective
content labels to over 350 entertainment software titles.

SPA's opposition to the Communications Decency Act does not represent any
change in its position regarding liability of online service providers and
Internet access providers for copyright infringement. Because SPA relies
on current copyright law -- including liability for direct and indirect
infringement -- to protect hundreds of software companies from piracy, it
is deeply concerned tht any change in existing law could make that fight
more difficult or less effective. Obscenity and copyright infringement are
different offenses, and deserve different legal standards. Courts and
Congress have recognized this difference for many years, and SPA remains
very concerned about efforts to confuse the two.

SPA's focus is on companies developing and publishing software applications
and interactive content. SPA is the leading trade association of the
desktop software industry, representing the leading publishers as well as
many start-up firms in the business, consumer and education markets. Its
1,200 members account for 90 percent of the sales of the U.S. packaged
software industry. Hundreds of these companies look to SPA to protect
their intellectual property and promote trade in the United States and
around the world. SPA is an international organization with offices both
in the United States and Europe. SPA press releases are available through
CompuServe (GO:SPAFORUM), on SPA's Web site at http://www.spa.org or
through Fax-on-Demand at (800) 637-6823.

Software Publishers Association
1730 M St, Northwest, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20036
202-452-1600,  Fax: 202-223-8756
 
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