Telecommunications Reform Act of 1995 was recently passed into law. Provisions of its Communications Decency Act are being challenged in court by the EFF, EPIC, ACLU and others. A partial temporary restraining order prohibiting enforcement of the "indecency" provision of this act has been granted. The challenged provisions are deemed a threat to freedom of expression on the Internet.
Steven Cherry and Shabbir J. Safdar of VTW will be covering the Federal and New York State Internet bills/laws and how they can relate to you as a user, a content provider, or an ISP. Also covered will be how you can help stop such bills in the future.
Shabbir J. Safdar's bio:
Shabbir J. Safdar is Director of the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW), a watchdog group dedicated to monitoring encroachments on civil liberties in telecommunications policy.
Under Shabbir's direction, VTW has fought the FBI's blanket Wiretap proposal, Federal and New York state attempts to muzzle free speech on the Internet, and the Administration's "Son Of Clipper Chip" program. In addition, VTW has helped to elect Internet-friendly legislators starting with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) who recently was elected to fill Bob Packwood's seat.
Shabbir's work with VTW has been covered in Wired magazine, Communications Daily, and the National Journal. Shabbir was also named to Newsweek's "50 People To Watch On The Internet" for 1995.
Steven Cherry's bio:
Steven Cherry is a co-founder and member of the advisory board of Voters Telecommunications Watch, and serves as its primary press contact. In his copious spare time he also usually answers the email flames VTW is honoured to receive. He is also a director of the Society for Electronic Access, a New York-based non-profit advocacy group for local on-line issues, and a former President of the New York Amateur Computer Club, the second-oldest computer club in America.
In the terrestrial world, he is Executive Editor of Magazines at ACM, the Association for Computing and has worked at the intersection of computers and publishing for about a decade.
VTW issues that Steven will be concerning himself particularly with in the upcoming year are the 1996 elections and copyright.
Please join us for this meeting, you won't want to miss it!
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