* The Other Side of the Coin: Feinstein Bill v. Bomb Material Online

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has drafted an amendment to the Senate
Comprehensive Terrorism Prevention bill, S.735, of Sen. Dole.  Like the CDA
revisions, this remains an unintroduced draft, on hold until its parent
bill is in open discussion in the Senate.  The draft intends to:
"prohibit the dissemination of information on the making of explosive
materials with intent or knowledge that such information will be used for
a criminal purpose."

The draft amendment would mandate up to twenty years in prison for anyone
who "teach[es] or demonstrate[s] the making of explosive materials, or...
disseminate[s] by any means information pertaining to, in whole or in part,
the manufacture of explosive materials" if the person even "resonably
should know" that such explosives or information "is [sic] likely to be
used for, or in furtherance of, a federal offense or other criminal
purpose affecting interstate commerce."

Though the legislation does not directly mention the Internet, it is
certainly drafted to apply to online media, and was inspired by what
Feinstein perceives (or hears about in the media, since it is unlikely
the Senator has actually ever logged in and found any bombmaking
instructions online) as tools for terrorism on computer networks.  The
agenda is clear. Feinstein, herself a near-victim of a failed letter-bombing
attempt, along with other legislators, representatives of the
Administration, and spokespersons from the civil liberties community,
participated in a May 11 Senate Terrorism Committee hearing on "The
Availability of Bomb Making Information On The Internet".  Feinstein
suggested that bomb-making data be banned from the net, according to
_Interactive_Week_.  Calling such materials information that "teaches
people to kill" she stated that it is "pushing the envelope of free
speech to the extremes."  Feinstein was asked, and did not answer, if
she intended to ban such materials (e.g. the widely available
_Anarchist_Cookbook_) from bookstores, after she suggested
that the "doctrine of prior restraint is one we have to look at",
because such information "isn't what this country is all about."

Others likely to support the Feinstein amendment if introduced when the
anti-terrorism bill hits the Senate floor include Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) and
the Justice Department. Kohl at the same hearing commented that Americans
would be shocked at the "dark back alleys of the Internet... In other words,
the industry acts now, or Congress will do it for you... After all, if we
have the technology to get kids on the Internet, we have should have the
technology to get them off." Expanding on the overused outrage-generator of
protecting kids from the evils of electronic communications, Dep. Asst.
Atty. Gen. Robert Litt, testified, "Not only do would-be terrorists have
access to detailed information on how to construct explosives, but so do
children."

Experienced BBS and Internet users may marvel at the seeming gullibility
of these hearing pronouncements. It is clear that Kohl, Feinstein and Litt
are unware, or choose to ignore, that most of the material they are
decrying is actually written by minors - neither very accurate nor
likely at all to be used by terrorists - and that far more reliable
information on topics like the anatomy of a bomb can be had from most
public libraries (e.g. in the _Encyclopaedia_Britannica_), and from the
U.S. government itself.  Brock Meeks writing for _Interactive_Week_
notes that the very bomb type used to destroy the Federal Building in
Oklahoma City is covered in a "detailed recipe" in the Forestry
Service's own readily available _Blaster's_Handbook_.

Others at the hearing, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), warned against
looking to censorship for a solution. Leahy retorted that the real problem
is "harmful and dangerous conduct, not speech".  Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA),
who chaired the hearing, appeared to remain rather neutral on the issue,
being neither certain that censorship and access restriction to online
material was technically feasible, nor encouraged to call for censorship
by the DoJ's admission that they had no evidence at all of crimes taking
place as a result of information gathered from the Internet.


The full text of the Feinstein draft can be found at

http://www.eff.org/Bills_by_number/s735_95_feinstein_amend.draft
ftp.eff.org, /pub/Legislation/Bills_by_number/s735_95_feinstein_amend.draft
gopher.eff.org, 1/Legislation/Bills_by_number, s735_95_feinstein_amend.draft

There's plenty more to worry about from this and other anti-terrorism
legislation, most of which proposes one or more unconstitional
"solutions" to perceived problems, and many of which seek to expand, in
some cases radically, law enforcement and intelligence wiretapping
authority and abilities.  These bills, archived by bill number, are
also available in the Bills_by_number directory at the sites above.