Chapter 17.3 Regulating the Internet

Internet Speech ► Free speech is a key democratic right. The Internet promotes free speech by giving all users a way to express their views to the world. Unfortunately, hate groups and others also use the Internet to spread offensive material.

continued ► The Communications Decency Act outlawed sending or displaying indecent or obscene material over the Internet “in a manner available” to those under 18. In Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, the Supreme Court ruled the indecency portion of the law unconstitutional. The Court held that speech on the Internet should receive the same high level of protection as given to books and newspapers.

continued ► In Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the Supreme Court ruled that school administrators can regulate the content of student print publications if doing so serves an educational purpose. Several lower courts have found that students’ online papers produced with school equipment may also be subject to regulation.

Intellectual Property ► Intellectual Property is something people create, such as songs, movies, books, poetry, art and software. When you buy a book or music CD, you do not gain ownership of the artistic work. Only the artist or author who created the work has a right to sell it or let others use it.

continued ► A copyright is the owner’s exclusive right to control, publish and sell an original work. It is intended to prevent people from taking or copying someone else’s creation without permission. ► Computers and the Internet make it easy to copy and widely distribute intellectual property. As a result, the Internet has become a battleground over intellectual property rights.

continued ► The Napster Web site enabled users to swap files of copyrighted songs for free. The music industry sued Napster for violating copyrights. Court rulings forced Napster to shut down. Meanwhile, other swap sites appeared. ► The Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it a crime to develop or spread software that will bypass computer codes that protect copyrighted material.

continued ► Movie and recording companies believe the law helps protect what is theirs. Critics say the law will punish computer scientists for exposing flaws in computer security systems, even if they don’t steal anything. Also, civil liberties groups argue that software code is a form of speech protected by the 1 st Amendment.

Taxing E-Commerce ► Online shopping allows customers to avoid paying sales tax. As a result, state and local governments lose out on a prime source of revenue. Revenue is the income that a government or business collects.

continued ► Tax opponents argue that sales taxes would unfairly burden online companies. Taxes vary from state to state. Online businesses would have to charge different rates depending on where customers lived and then send the funds to different state gov’ts. Plus, unlike local merchants, online companies would not share the benefits those taxes pay for. ► An advisory group created by Congress proposed the state and local tax systems be simplified and made more uniform. Then a fair Internet tax could be developed.

The Internet at School ► The Children’s Internet Protection Act requires schools to install technology that blocks student access to offensive or dangerous materials on the Web. ► The software allows school officials to decide what material is harmful. It also monitors the school’s Internet traffic to identify prohibited actitivies.

continued ► Should parents be able to look at school records of Web sites that students have visited? In a court case, school officials argued that releasing the records would violate student privacy. The court ruled that a parent could look at the records as long as administrators removed information that identified individual students.