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Read down to the sections on the Bells and porno-blocking for the good stuph.
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Free Speech Media, LLC
July 11, 1995
Number 8
4 pages
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Compiled, written, and edited by Coralee Whitcomb
Please direct comments and inquiries to cwhitcom@bentley.edu
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The Telecom Post is posted to several distribution lists and is also available
from the CPSR listserv. To subscribe, send to LISTSERV@CPSR.ORG with the
message SUBSCRIBE TELECOM-POST YOUR NAME.
The Telecom Post will be published weekly while the U.S. Congress works on
a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S information delivery systems.
=====================================================
TOPICS
1. Regulatory Reform
2. The attack on non-profits
3. The readying for battle on HR 1555
4. Spectrum Flexibility - Action Alert
5. Windows '95 - scary
REGULATORY REFORM
S. 343, the Comprehensive Regulatory Reform Act of 1995 is now
on the Senate floor. The Citizens for Sensible Safeguards are
holding daily press conferences to speak out about this bill.
No compromising here - this bill should be roundly defeated.
The last issue of the Telecom Post reported that a much improved
version of S343 had emerged from a meeting between Democrats and
Dole (one of the sponsors). Unfortunately, that read was
premature, and the bill remains in unacceptable form.
S. 343 would require an extensive cost/benefit analysis and risk
assessment be performed on all existing and new regulations with
an impact of over $50m. Each regulation that has not passed
through this process in a limited amount of time, will be
eliminated. Though most consider regulatory reform needed, this
bill will drop many of our worker safety and environmental
safeguards while tying up the courts with industry maneuvering.
Senators Chafee and Glen have introduced alternative legislation
raising the definition of a "major rule" to over $100m and
extending the sunset provisions if the rule is still undergoing
its review process. The Citizens for Sensible Safeguards do not
feel that this is enough difference to support the bill. Please
call your senators in opposition to this bad bill.
THE ATTACK ON NONPROFITS
Independent Sector has published a letter hoping that many
hundreds of nonprofits will sign on to demonstrate the pervasive
opposition to the Istook/McIntosh/Ehrlich proposal to gag
nonprofit organizations. The letter follows. To sign on to
this letter fax 202-416-0580 or call 202-223-8100 with your
name, organization, address, telephone, and fax number, and
email address.
Sign-on statement:
Serving the Public Good
A Position Statement on Advocacy by Nonprofit Organizations
The nonprofit sector plays a key role in our society today. In
partnership with government, nonprofit organizations are engaged
in service delivery, research, public education, and much
more-in general, they work to build a better America. Nonprofit
organizations also speak to policymakers and the public on
behalf of the people they serve, as well as empower them to
speak for themselves. The advocacy voice on the nonprofit sector
has led to significant improvements in public policies at the
local, state, and federal level.
Because nonprofit organizations do not stand to profit by
lobbying and can provide enormous insight on public policy
issues, Congress has encouraged them to lobby, but has placed
detailed restrictions on the amount of money that can be used
for lobbying purposes. The federal government also bars
nonprofits from using any federal funds for lobbying purposes,
and prohibits nonprofit organizations form engaging in partisan
politics.
Nonprofit organizations faithfully comply with all these
restrictions and support enforcement of penalties when the rules
are violated. However, some in Congress are proposing to go
beyond current restrictions to silence the advocacy voice of the
nonprofit sector. They would, for example, expand the lobbying
restrictions to include all "political advocacy" activities, bar
certain organizations that engage in advocacy from receiving any
federal grants, and prohibit federal employees from giving
contributions to nonprofits that engage in advocacy. Such
efforts will have a chilling impact n the democratic process as
well as the rights of individuals and organizations to
participate in public policy debates. We strongly oppose any
effort to limit the advocacy voice of the nonprofit sector.
Curtailing the historical responsibility to speak to the public
and to policymakers on behalf of the people nonprofit
organizations serve would be a severe blow to our democratic
freedoms.
GETTING READY FOR BATTLE
Timetable
We look forward to the House bills coming to the floor in the
next two weeks. Apparently, there is a commitment by the House
to address the telecom legislation before their August 4 recess
so though the schedule isn't made, we can look forward to it
shortly. The House process is different than the Senate's. A
bill must first go through the "rules" process where it is
determined how much time will be taken, what amendments will be
looked at and how much time each of those gets. If your
Congressman is on the rules committee this might be an
opportunity to be effective as the rules process does much to
shape the debate. We would like the longest possible amount of
time for floor debate.
The House fight should look similar to the Senate fight with the
following differences. The role of the Department of Justice
will take a center stage. Rep. Hyde (R-IL), chair of the House
Judiciary committee has introduced bill HR 1528 which would
provide Justice with consultative, oversight responsibility in
determining that sufficient competition exists for Bell entry
into long distance. Other differences come from Gingrich's
strong first amendment viewpoint on net censorship and total
rejection of the Exon amendment. And there is likely to be a
fight for the Snow/Rockefeller type pricing considerations for
non-commercial entities.
The Bells are taking a strong stance in opposition to the
"facilities-based competition" language in HR1555 claiming that
it will prevent them from ever entering the long distance
market. They have written Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas
Bliley (champion of that language) threatening to non-support
of the legislation without substantial changes. The long
distance telco coalition, the Competitive Long Distance
Coalition, is outraged at the Bells' arrogance. Rep. Jack
Fields (R-TX) seems to think that the offending language can be
eliminated along with any substantive role of the Department of
Justice.
Other developments include the further "scrubbing" of the bill
of state regulatory authority and additional removal of FCC
regulatory powers. Public utilities may well be added to the mix
of telecommunication providers.
Censorship
The People for the American Way and the ACLU are working with
Rep. Cox (R-CA) and Wyden (D-OR) to promote content-filtering
technologies as a porno control rather than the producer/carrier
liability approach of Exon. The spirit of the cooperation and
the general direction of user-controlled filtering devices are
encouraging, though both advocacy groups are critical of the
specific language in the "Internet Freedom and Empowerment Act".
Essentially the bill attempts to free both those carriers who
don't want to touch any form of editorial control as well as
those "good Samaritans" who try their hand at keeping the net
"clean". This provision attempts to overturn the Prodigy
decision of inducing liability upon the carrier who attempts to
exercise editorial control. There remains the complication that
several states are enacting "mini-Exon" bills and the Cox/Wyden
bill bows to their authority. Another troubling aspect is the
prohibition on "economic regulation" by the FCC. A potential
result is the dismantling of Snowe/Rockefeller, universal
service related provisions. The ACLU points out that it is
important that die-hard civil libertarians be heard now. The
momentum on the right flank is so strong, only the most extreme
left position will leave room for a satisfactory compromise.
SPECTRUM FLEXIBILITY - ACTION ALERT
The Media Access Project reports that there is an important
opportunity for the public interest community to make a
difference and IT REQUIRES REAL GRASSROOTS ACTION BY ALL OF
USNOW. Some time ago extra spectrum was set aside for
broadcasters to make the transition to HDTV. Conversion to
digital will permit broadcasters to provide six or more program
and non-program services such as data, paging and others. On
JULY 28 there will be an FCC proceeding to determine the terms
under which that additional spectrum will be allocated. The
commissioners need to hear that the public should have a period
with which to make comments. This is an opportunity to insist
that part of that additional spectrum be devoted to the public
good. The letters must be received by JULY 21. I will follow up
this report with a sample letter for all of us to work with.
The take on the commissioners' attitudes is that this could go
either way so, therefore, real grassroots effort can make a REAL
difference.
MICROSOFT AND WINDOWS '95
The National Consumers League reports on some very scary facts
regarding Windows '95. The Microsoft Network will be bundled
with the operating system. When a new owner boots up they will
be invited to register on the network. If they don't, they will
be faced with the same invitation every time they boot up - it
cannot be dismantled. While the MSN icon will continue to
appear on the desktop regardless of whether it is active, icons
from other providers will be buried four layers down forcing you
to search for your provider of choice. A "registration mole" is
built in that can inventory your hard drive of all its .exe
files and keep Microsoft updated along with your registration
info as to what you use on your system.
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