Hey, check out the mccullagh.org nude photo section at: http://www.mccullagh.org/image/1/bottom.html -Declan --- Long Reach of Sex Spam Bill By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private) 3:13 p.m. May 24, 2001 PDT WASHINGTON -- Spam touting preternaturally nubile lasses and dubious penile enhancement techniques is, without question, clogging inboxes, vexing companies and alarming parents. So nobody was surprised when the House Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly approved a bill on Wednesday that backers say will shield America's inboxes from the tacky carnality of spambots. Nobody, that is, except legitimate businesses that suddenly realized sending even legitimate sex-related e-mail might soon be a federal crime. Call them casualties of the rush to can spam. Rep. Melissa Hart (R-Penn) persuaded the committee to adopt an amendment that applies to all e-mail advertisements related to sex -- not just unsolicited ones. "It could include plenty of material that's perfectly mainstream that has sexually explicit content," said David Horowitz, executive director of the Media Coalition, which represents groups such as the Magazine Publishers of America and the American Booksellers Association. "A number of women's magazines that have articles about sexual performance or sexual secrets. It could also include health advertisements for Viagra." If Horowitz is correct, messages such as Playboy's e-mail newsletter, an invitation to visit Salon magazine's sex section, an invitation to visit Arizona's Etherton Gallery Mapplethorpe exhibit, or a note telling your friends to check out your nude photos would be outlawed unless they're rated as sexually explicit. Instead of banning sex notes outright, the bill promises a fine and a 1-year prison term to anyone who e-mails an advertisement relating to sex without including a special advisory to be drafted by the attorney general. [...] --- Rep. Melissa Hart (R-PA)'s successful amendment: Page 2, line 19, strike the close quotation mark and the period that follows. Page 2, after line 19, insert the following: "§622. Warning labels for electronic mail containing advertisements harmful to children "(a)(1) The Attorney General shall prescribe marks or notices to be included in electronic mail that contains a sexually oriented advertisement in order to inform the recipient of that fact. "(2) Whoever, in any electronic mail that is carried on an instrumentality in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly includes a sexually oriented advertisement but does not include in such electronic mail the marks or notices prescribed by the Attorney General under this section shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. "(b) As used in this section, the term 'sexually oriented advertisement' means any advertisement that depicts, in actual or simulated form, or explicitly describes, in a predominantly sexual context, human genitalia, any act of natural or unnatural sexual intercourse, any act of sadism or masochism, or any other erotic subject directly related to the foregoing, but material otherwise within the definition of this subsection shall be deemed not to constitute a sexually oriented advertisement if it constitutes only a small and insignificant part of the whole, the remainder of which is not primarily devoted to sexual matters.". Insert at the end of the table of sections in the material following line 8 on the first page the following new item: "622. Warning labels for electronic mail containing matter harmful to minors.". ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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