The Communications Decency Act :: essays research papers fc

The Communications Decency ActThe U.S. Government should non begin to place restrictions on the internet.The Internet does not belong to the United States and it is not ourresponsibility to save the valet, so why are we attempting to regulate both(prenominal)thingthat belongs to the creation? The Telecommunications Reform Act has done exactlythat, put regulations on the Internet.Edward Cavazos quotes William Gibson says, "As described in Neuromancer,Cyberspace was a consensual hallucination that felt and looked like a physicalspace but actually was a computing device-generated construct representing abstractdata." (1) When Gibson coined that phrase he had no idea that it would exitthe household word that it is today. "Cyberspace now represents a vast soldiers ofcomputer systems accessible from remote physical locations." (Cavazos 2)The Internet has grown explosively over the last few years. "The Internetsgrowth since its beginnings in 1981. At that time, the take of host systemswas 213 machines. At the time of this writing, twelve years later, the numberhas jumped to 1,313,000 systems connecting instanter to the Internet." (Cavazos10)" screen plays a unique role in American law." (Cavazos 13) Privacy is notexplicitly provided for in the Constitution, yet most of the Internet users sojourn anonymous. Cavazos says, "Computers and digital communicationtechnologies present a serious challenge to legislators and settle who try tomeet the demands of economic and social change while protect this most basicand fundamental personal freedom." Networks and the Internet make it favourable foranyone with the proper equipment to look at information based around the worldinstantly and remain anonymous. "The right to carry at least some forms ofspeech activity anonymously has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court." (Cavazos15) In profits it is extremely uncommon for someone to use their given nameto conduct themse lves, but rather they use pseudonyms or "Handles". (Cavazos 14)Not only is it not illegal to use handles on most systems, but the sysop (SystemOperator) does not soak up to allow anyone access to his data files on who is theperson behind the handle. whatever sysops make the information public, or give theoption to the user, or dont compose the information at all.The Internet brings forth many new concerns regarding aversion and computers. Withmovies like Wargames, and more recently Hackers, becoming popular, computercrime is organism blown out of proportion. "The word Hacker conjures up a hopefulimage in the popular media." (Cavazos 105) There are many types of computercrime that fall under the umbrella of "Hacking". Cavazos says, "In 1986Congress passed a comprehensive federal law outlawing many of the activities