The Communications Decency Act :: essays research papers fc

The Communications Decency ActThe U.S. Government should not attempt to place restrictions on the internet.The Internet does not belong to the United States and it is not ourresponsibility to save the world, so why are we attempting to regulate somethingthat belongs to the world? The Telecommunications Reform Act has make exactlythat, put regulations on the Internet.Edward Cavazos quotes William Gibson says, "As described in Neuromancer,Cyber billet was a consensual hallucination that felt and mattered like a physicalspace but actually was a computer-generated construct representing abstractdata." (1) When Gibson coined that phrase he had no idea that it would becomethe household word that it is today. "Cyberspace now represents a vast array ofcomputer systems accessible from remote physical locations." (Cavazos 2)The Internet has grown explosively over the last few years. "The Internetsgrowth since its beginnings in 1981. At that time, the number of host syste mswas 213 machines. At the time of this writing, twelve years later, the numberhas jumped to 1,313,000 systems connecting directly to the Internet." (Cavazos10)" secretiveness plays a unique role in American law." (Cavazos 13) Privacy is notexplicitly provided for in the Constitution, yet most of the Internet usersremain anonymous. Cavazos says, "Computers and digital communicationtechnologies present a serious challenge to legislators and judges who movement tomeet the demands of economic and social change while protecting this most basicand fundamental personal freedom." Networks and the Internet make it easy foranyone with the proper equipment to look at information based around the worldinstantly and remain anonymous. "The right to conduct at least some forms ofspeech activity anonymously has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court." (Cavazos15) In cyberspace it is extremely uncommon for someone to use their given nameto conduct themselves, but rather they use pseudonyms or "Handles". (Cavazos 14)Not only is it not illegal to use handles on most systems, but the sysop (SystemOperator) does not have to allow anyone access to his data files on who is theperson behind the handle. Some sysops make the information public, or give theoption to the user, or dont collect the information at all.The Internet brings forth many immature concerns regarding crime and computers. Withmovies like Wargames, and more recently Hackers, becoming popular, computercrime is being blown out of proportion. "The word Hacker conjures up a magnificentimage in the popular media." (Cavazos 105) There are many types of computercrime that fall under the umbrella of "Hacking". Cavazos says, "In 1986Congress passed a all-round(prenominal) federal law outlawing many of the activities