The disputes between those acting as cybercops versus Internet civil liberties proponents will be discussed at the upcoming CHI 99 Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI), May 15 - 20 in Pittsburgh, Pa. at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
CHI is the premier worldwide forum for the exchange of information on all aspects of how people interact with computers. This annual conference features a full program of presentations, tutorials and vendor exhibits. There will be approximately 2,500 professionals, from over 35 countries, in attendance at CHI to examine the future of computer-human interaction.
With the ease, growing amount of information and ever increasing number of people accessing the World Wide Web, there has come reaction from groups who seek to control this computer-human interaction. Basically, there are two warring factions doing battle over Internet content and access to that content: those who wish to regulate it and those who are fighting to preserve a high degree of free-speech rights on the Net. The former group would create laws, regulations and require such things as filtering devices. The latter group advocates a World Wide Web that voluntarily monitors itself.
Several years ago the Communications Decency Act (CDA) was passed by the U.S. Congress and represented a serious attack against the use of the Internet. Subsequently, however, the act was mostly struck down as unconstitutional largely due to the efforts of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
More recently, Congress passed another bill, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which opponents saw as a thinly veiled reincarnation of CDA. Again, the ACLU was an effective adversary and the act was barred from enforcement on February 1 by U.S. District Court Judge Lowell Reed. Reed ruled the law would block First Amendment protected online speech by adults.
Legislation like CDA and COPA are examples of what happens when new technologies are introduced. However, according to Ann Beeson, staff attorney for the ACLU, "The Web should be entitled greater protection than other media because of its free-speech enhancing characteristics." Beeson also pointed out that the issues in the CDA and COPA court battles were not so much technical or legal, as they were about the people creating content and using the Web, and the compelling nature of these uses. She said "what convinced the courts to overturn the CDA was the important nature of what people were doing on the Web, and the potential harm the Act could do to these activities."
Beeson will speak at the closing meeting for CHI 99, where the issues raised by CDA and COPA are slated for discussion. For more information about the CHI 99 Conference visit their Web site at www.acm.org/sigchi/chi99.
