by Walter S. Baer

About the author: Walter S. Baer is a specialist in communications and information policy at the RAND Corporation, a public policy research institution headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

In June 1995, the U.S. Senate passed [Senator James Exon’s Communications Decency Act] that would make electronic transmission of any materials deemed “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent” a federal crime, punishable by up to two years in prison and/or a $100,000 fine.

This definition would criminalize sending electronic excerpts from many newspapers, magazines and books that are readily found on newsstands or in convenience stores and public libraries. And if the Senate’s action isn’t tough enough, a high-level government task force is set to propose a new federal agency to police the nation’s information...