From netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!netcomsv!uu3news.netcom.com!netcomsv!uu4news.netcom.com!duke.group1.com!news2.clari.net!soprano.clari.net!e.news Sat Dec 30 09:41:10 1995
Xref: netcom.com clari.tw.new_media:2140 clari.news.issues.censorship:54
Path: netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!netcomsv!uu3news.netcom.com!netcomsv!uu4news.netcom.com!duke.group1.com!news2.clari.net!soprano.clari.net!e.news
Approved: editor@clarinet.com
Comment: O:3.8H;
Distribution: clari.apo
Supersedes:
From: C-ap@clari.net (AP)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.new_media,clari.news.issues.censorship
Subject: CompuServe Axes Few Newsgroups
Keywords: General financial/business news, Block, H&R, tick=HRB,
America Online Inc, tick=AMER, International Business Machines,
tick=IBM, Sears, Roebuck & Co., tick=S, Business, HiTech, Consumer
Organization: Copyright 1995 by The Associated Press
Message-ID:
Lines: 79
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 7:00:09 PST
Expires: Fri, 12 Jan 1996 7:00:09 PST
ACategory: financial
Slugword: CompuServe
Threadword: compuserve
Priority: regular
ANPA: Wc: 841/0; Id: V0739; Src: ap; Sel: -----; Adate: 12-29-N.A; Ver: 0/3; V: 0841
Codes: APO-1310
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- CompuServe Inc. blocked access for its 4
million users to a sex-oriented area of the Internet under pressure
from German prosecutors investigating child pornography.
The move Thursday represents the most drastic action yet to
limit public access to the Internet, the global computer network
with an estimated 40 million users.
It alarmed cyberspace enthusiasts who say it could lead
governments to begin trying in earnest to censor, legislate and
regulate the Internet.
``The part that is the greatest threat is that rules will be put
up and barriers will be set before we even know what this business
(the Internet) is all about and what great opportunities it
offers,'' said Gary Arlen, president of Arlen Communications, a
Bethesda, Md.-based research company that specializes in
interactive services.
Once the arcane domain of scientists, the Internet now allows
people in homes, offices and universities to publicly post text,
audio and pictures on thousands of electronic discussion forums
called newsgroups.
These forums are maintained on interconnected networks of
computers around the world, but can often be reached with a local
phone call to a commercial on-line service or Internet provider.
Most of these services and providers don't have customers in
Germany, so the German request would not affect how free or
restrictive they are in providing newsgroup access.
But CompuServe, a Columbus-based unit of H&R Block Inc.,
provides the same service overseas that it offers to Americans, and
it had no ready way to block only its 220,000 German users from
some material.
Munich prosecutor Manfred Wick confirmed Friday that Bavarian
state police investigators searched CompuServe's networks and
computers last month for child pornography, but he would not say
what they found.
``We didn't threaten them with charges,'' Wick said.
Arno Edelmann, a CompuServe product manager in Unterhaching,
Germany, said Friday that the company blocked access to 200
sex-oriented newsgroups in a portion of the Internet called Usenet.
``It is perhaps an overreaction but we want to cooperate with
the Bavarian prosecutor's office,'' Edelmann said.
The move prompted a flurry of angry postings on CompuServe's
in-house message forums Friday. Some German members said they
planned to cancel their subscriptions and seek direct, uncensored
Internet access.
Other subscribers said they were starting a petition drive or
asked others to bombard CompuServe's customer service staff with
protests.
``E-mail early, e-mail often,'' one said.
One subscriber complained that some of the banned newsgroups
contained nothing obscene or indecent and that one was ``a vital
lifeline for gay youth.''
German authorities notified CompuServe this week that they were
investigating 200 distributors of sexually explicit material in
connection with a government probe of what's on the Internet. They
told CompuServe to block member access to them.
CompuServe said it will continue to cooperate with the
investigation, but noted that it has no creative or editorial
control over material on the Internet.
The Internet could face rules and regulations in many countries.
The European Union is studying possible regulation and Congress is
considering legislation that would ban pornography on the Internet.
On-line services themselves have guidelines for what is
permissible.
America Online, which claims 4.5 million users, bans use of
languages other than English for public messages because it cannot
screen them for forbidden words.
The screening process often leads to disputes, such as earlier
this month, when the service had to back off its ban of the word
``breast'' because it was interfering with serious dialogue among
breast-cancer patients.
America Online and Prodigy, an on-line service co-owned by IBM
and Sears, Roebuck & Co., also allow parents to restrict what their
children can see.
Jan Buettner, managing director of America Online's new joint
venture in Germany, said his company was also contacted by the
Munich prosecutors about child pornography but they were satisfied
with the company's protective measures.
--
This is the NEW RELEASE of the ClariNet e.News! If you notice any
problems with the new edition, please mail us at editor@clari.net and
let us know. Thanks! More information can be found on our web site at
http://www.clari.net/ or in clari.net.announce.