Re: Attention, parents of CMU students!

On 18 Oct 2003 18:24:05 GMT, "Magi D. Shepley"
<magid@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Would you like to show everybody WHERE the website promotes throwing 
>bombs at police cars?  Either way, the guy has the right to say it.  It 
>only crosses the line when he actually DOES it.

Perhaps.  OTOH, this Bill was put up to Congress in 1997.

http://www.totse.com/en/politics/right_to_keep_and_bear_arms/no_info1.html

Senate Votes to Outlaw Bomb Making Instructions
Senate Votes to Outlaw Bomb-Making Info
by Rebecca Vesely

12:09pm 20.Jun.97.PDT The Senate has voted 94-0 to tack onto 
a Defense Department spending bill an amendment that would 
prohibit the distribution of bomb-making instructions in the United
States.

Although the word "Internet" is not mentioned in the four-page
amendment, the legislation would outlaw Web sites, newspapers, 
zines, and books that publish instructions on how to make a 
bomb - such as The Anarchist's Cookbook and The Terrorist 
Handbook. Violators would face fines and prison sentences of 
up to 20 years.

Sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), who 
has been trying to get the legislation on the books since 1995, 
the amendment passed Thursday is narrowly written to include 
only the distribution of material that has an "intent to harm."

In April, the Justice Department released a study that found 
there indeed is a connection between the availability of 
bomb-making instructions and the actual making of bombs. 
It also concluded that legislation criminalizing the publication 
of such information, if narrowly written, would not be a violation 
of the First Amendment. The Justice Department determined 
that the distribution of such materials is not a basic 
free-speech right, but an obstruction of justice.

The Senate will vote on the defense bill early next week. 
The bill - and the amendment - will then go to a House 
conference committee.

Copyright © 1993-97 Wired Ventures, Inc. and affiliated companies.
All rights reserved.

and it apparently passed too.
http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020457,39115698,00.htm

Anarchy in the USA
Declan McCullagh
CNET News.com
August 14, 2003, 14:35 BST
Tell us your opinion
Sherman Austin is looking forward to a year in federal prison with the
kind of equanimity that most people reserve for a trip to the doctor's
office

The 20-year-old anarchist was charged with distributing information
about Molotov cocktails and "Drano bombs" on his Web site,
Raisethefist.com. Under a 1997 federal law championed by Senator
Dianne Feinstein, it is illegal to publish such instructions with the
intent that readers commit "a federal crime of violence."

During the floor debate over the legislation, which the Senate
approved unanimously, Feinstein said children "are getting
instructions for making these explosives from the Internet... In
February, in upstate New York, three 13-year-old boys were charged
with plotting to set off a homemade bomb in their junior high school,
using bomb-making plans which they had gotten off of the Internet...
My amendment gives law enforcement another tool in the war against
terrorism, to combat the flow of information that is used to teach
terrorists and other criminals how to build bombs."

Austin appears to be the first person so far convicted under the
controversial law, which some First Amendment scholars say may violate
the right to freedom of expression. Earlier this year, Austin pleaded
guilty, and last week a federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced him to
one year in prison.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits