Internet Laws
There are a lot of debates dealing with laws concerning the Internet. Privacy and censorship are just two of the main points of argument.
While searching through this information, I found it difficult to actually find new laws concerning the Internet. There are many ongoing debates that I am sure will reach legislation. I found the CNN website to be the most help. I used other search engines, such as Google and AllTheWeb, but I mostly got personal websites about their own opinions. I would suggest that someone really researching this subject should take the time and really look through Supreme Court documents and legislation.
That way you wouldn't miss anything. I wasn't very successful in my searching, but here are the ones I managed to find.
In San Francisco, California, Internet filters designed to keep pornography away from children were banned at city libraries despite a federal law mandating them. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ban the filters from library computers, a move that could cost the city $20,000 in federal funds.
The board left it up to the Library Commission to decide whether to install filtering software in children's areas. The Children's Internet Protection Act, passed in April, requires libraries to install the software by 2003. The $20,000 the city might not get would be a tiny portion of its $50 million annual library budget.
There is Legislation under consideration in the United States Congress to combat terrorism will treat low-level computer crimes as terrorist acts and threaten hackers with life imprisonment, according to officials of the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
EFF says the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) will add low-level computer intrusion (already a crime under other laws) to the list of "federal terrorism offenses," creating penalties of up to life imprisonment. The act will also add broad pre-conviction asset seizure powers and serious criminal threats to those who "materially assist" or "harbor" individuals suspected of causing minimal damage to networked computers.
The House of Representatives passed legislation Tuesday, October 26, 1999 to promote global free trade on the Internet. (Global Internet Tax Freedom 423-1). Chairman Cox and Sen. Ron Wyden authored the legislation, following up on the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which was signed by President Clinton October 21, 1998.
That law created a three-year moratorium on domestic Internet taxes. The new bill includes three main provisions: No Tariffs on the Internet, No Multiple, Discriminatory, or Special Taxes, and No Bit Taxes.
