The Constitutional Attack on the Internet...

Enclosed Below is my letter to The President and the New York Times.

The Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036
June 23, 1995

We congratulate Speaker Gingrich on his opposition to the Senate Telecommunications Act. The Speaker rightfully attacked the bill on First Amendment grounds. Further, we urge the Speaker to heed President Clinton's call for Congressional hearings before bringing a House bill to the floor.

The Senate bill is loaded with flaws, not limited to the Constitutional problem cited by Representative Gingrich.

It is anti-competitive because the Senate looked to the "industry" to draft the bill assuming that "the industry" consists of a handful of industry giants with a budget for high ticket Washington Law firms. Senate hearings would have exposed a competitive industry with thousands of small business players, responsible for the lion's share of innovation and breakthrough technology.

The Senate bill foolishly requires all players in the industry to perform feats beyond the reach of current technology and demonstrates a total naivete as to the current state of the art. Principal results of the Senate bill, should it become law, would be to stifle the industry, make innovation prohibitively expensive and make the world safe for a monopoly by industry giants. Thousands of small internet and cable TV operators would either fail or be silenced by acquisition. We believe that the result would be contrary to "the American Dream" view of entrepreneurship touted by Congressional Republicans.

By lifting the restriction against ownership of multi-media in the same market, the Senate bill allows, in fact encourages monopoly. Media monopoly is far more threatening to American democracy than monopoly on utilities or heating oil. The market place for ideas is one where diversity is central to democracy. What happens to our free electoral system when one company owns all the radio and TV signals and the sole surviving newspaper in Boston?

The bill is unenforceable because it includes criminal sanctions on behavior that cannot be monitored or found. The Justice Department is rightfully concerned that the criminal provisions of the law cannot be enforced. Attempting just to monitor the internet for violations would require a whole new Federal Bureaucracy . We devoutly hope that the freshmen in the House have better understanding of the subject technology than their elders in the Senate.

And we call upon the President to DEMAND full hearings on the industry before signing any legislation.

Sincerely,
GARRETT W. GRIGGS
President, NY WEBB, Inc.

Enclosed Below is my letter to Senator Exon and it has been printed by The New York Times 3/29/95 in the editorial section.

This Topic will also be discussed on WABC-77 AM New York News Radio 06:45 AM 3/31/95 Friday.

The broadcast about the Internet and the Constitution will be LIVE on NewsTalk Television Noon Saturday April 1 1995, from 12 Noon to 12:30 pm EST.

The Host will be Vladamir Pozner, carried on TCI Cable systems around the country. NewsTalk Television can be seen in all 50 States. In New York City it is Channel 35. Please check your listings and if we're not there, call your cable company and tell them you want NewsTalk Television.

NewsTalk Television is Transmitted on Satellite Galaxy VII Transponder 22.

The show will be repeated Several Times over the weekend.

During the show, viewers or non-viewers can make their comments by calling NewsTalk Televisions Toll Free number, 1-800-792-7469.

Email for NewsTalk is: email@newstalk.com

They monitor their email during the shows so questions can be submitted both during and anytime after the show.

Letter follows:

TO: Senator Jim Exon

FROM: Garrett W. Griggs, President NY WEBB, INC. gwg7@webb.com 1-800-458-4660

Dear Senator Exon:

As an Internet provider, I share your concern about shielding children from the porn that proliferates on the Internet. Precisely due to this concern, we offer a children's forum for teens only that both restricts their access to the Internet as well as restricting adult access to the teens forum.

However, we strenuously oppose the "Exon Amendment" to S. 314, both on first amendment grounds and because, given the current stage of Internet development, it would be hopelessly impossible to enforce. Attempts at enforcement would needlessly tie up police power and clog an already over-burdened court system.

I have a recommendation that would solve the problem and coincidentally make my job, protecting young computer users, much easier.

Proposed:

To require the industry to establish a content rating system similar to the system used by the motion picture industry. I would specifically recommend that sexually explicit files be rated X due to current cultural recognition of "X" ratings.

The inclusion of an X in the internet address of sex files would make it very easy to write a software screen, allowing computer users and BBS operators like NY WEBB to block access for children and for anyone else who doesn't wish to look at smut.

Promoters of sexual material could be expected to self-police their material because just as with movies, an "X" rating would facilitate selection by their true target audience.

Most important, I believe a rating system would work and children would be effectively protected.

The criminalization of pornography would be no more effective at protecting our kids than the war on drugs.

gwg7@webb.com
Garrett W. Griggs
NY WEBB, Inc.
1133 Broadway, Rm. 1226
NY, NY 10010

Magicman: Thank you.

Comments? EMAIL? magicman@webb.com

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