"Challenges to Cyberporn Bill Could Clog Courts"
by Haya El Nasser  (19 June 1995, page A1, USA Today)

Legislative attempts to regulate sexually explicit messages and
material sent on the information highway could pave the was for a pileup
in the courts.  The House is considering such a measure; the Senate passed
its version last week.  Legal scholars say it violates constitutional
guarantees of free speech by cracking down on those who send obscene or
indecent material on-line.  "Obscenity, strictly speaking, has been held
by and large to be outside the protection of the First Amendment," says
David Post, who specializes in cyberspace law at Georgetown University
Law Center.  "But indecent material or lewd material or lascivious material
is not," he says.  "There is a legitimate claim government has overstepped
its bounds."  Post expects the courts "to wrestle with the issue."  The
legislation offers some protection for on-line services by targeting
those who "knowingly" make or distribute obscene communications or send
indecent material to minors.  On-line companies don't create, they
transmit, information.  The bill calls for fines up to $100,000 and prison
terms of up to two years, although how it would be enforced isn't clear.
"Everybody's at risk here of not knowing where the lines will be drawn
between free speech (and material) that might be deemed indecent in
the eyes of some judge," says Jerry Berman of the Center for Democracy
and Technology.  But others say children must be protected on-line.  "We
need to safeguard your home," says Donna Rice Huges of Enough is Enough,
a group combating pornography.  "We're helping adults comprehend there is
material...their children can get to that they can't even fathom."