I

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1978

To encourage and protect private sector initiatives that improve user control

over computer information services.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JUNE 30, 1995

Mr. COX of California (for himself and Mr. WYDEN) introduced the following

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

A BILL

To encourage and protect private sector initiatives that

improve user control over computer information services.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Internet Freedom and

5 Family Empowerment Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. ONLINE FAMILY EMPOWERMENT.

7 Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

8 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the

9 following new section:
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1 ‘‘SEC. 230. PROTECTION FOR PRIVATE BLOCKING AND

2 SCREENING OF OFFENSIVE MATERIAL; FCC

3 CONTENT AND ECONOMIC REGULATION OF

4 COMPUTER SERVICES PROHIBITED.

5 ‘‘(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:

6 ‘‘(1) The rapidly developing array of Internet

7 and other interactive computer services available to

8 individual Americans represent an extraordinary ad9 vance in the availability of educational and informa10 tional resources to our citizens.

11 ‘‘(2) These services offer users a great degree

12 of control over the information that they receive, as

13 well as the potential for even greater control in the

14 future as technology develops.

15 ‘‘(3) The Internet and other interactive com16 puter services offer a forum for a true diversity of

17 political discourse, unique opportunities for cultural

18 development, and myriad avenues for intellectual ac19 tivity.

20 ‘‘(4) The Internet and other interactive com21 puter services have flourished, to the benefit of all

22 Americans, with a minimum of government regula23 tion.

24 ‘‘(5) Increasingly Americans are relying on

25 interactive media for a variety of political, edu26 cational, cultural, and entertainment services.
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1 ‘‘(b) POLICY.—It is the policy of the United States

2 to—

3 ‘‘(1) promote the continued development of the

4 Internet and other interactive computer services and

5 other interactive media;

6 ‘‘(2) preserve the vibrant and competitive free

7 market that presently exists for the Internet and

8 other interactive computer services, unfettered by

9 State or Federal regulation;

10 ‘‘(3) encourage the development of technologies

11 which maximize user control over the information re12 ceived by individuals, families, and schools who use

13 the Internet and other interactive computer services;

14 ‘‘(4) remove disincentives for the development

15 and utilization of blocking and filtering technologies

16 that empower parents to restrict their children’s ac17 cess to objectionable or inappropriate online mate18 rial; and

19 ‘‘(5) ensure vigorous enforcement of criminal

20 laws to deter and punish trafficking in obscenity,

21 stalking, and harassment by means of computer.

22 ‘‘(c) PROTECTION FOR ‘GOOD SAMARITAN’ BLOCK23 ING AND SCREENING OF OFFENSIVE MATERIAL.—No

24 provider or user of interactive computer services shall be

25 treated as the publisher or speaker of any information pro-
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1 vided by an information content provider. No provider or

2 user of interactive computer services shall be held liable

3 on account of—

4 ‘‘(1) any action voluntarily taken in good faith

5 to restrict access to material that the provider or

6 user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy,

7 excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objection8 able, whether or not such material is constitutionally

9 protected; or

10 ‘‘(2) any action taken to make available to in11 formation content providers or others the technical

12 means to restrict access to material described in

13 paragraph (1).

14 ‘‘(d) FCC REGULATION OF THE INTERNET AND

15 OTHER INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICES PROHIB16 ITED.—Nothing in this Act shall be construed to grant

17 any jurisdiction or authority to the Commission with re18 spect to economic or content regulation of the Internet or

19 other interactive computer services.

20 ‘‘(e) EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS.—

21 ‘‘(1) NO EFFECT ON CRIMINAL LAW.—Nothing

22 in this section shall be construed to impair the en23 forcement of section 223 of this Act, chapter 71 (re24 lating to obscenity) or 110 (relating to sexual exploi-
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1 tation of children) of title 18, United States Code,

2 or any other Federal criminal statute.

3 ‘‘(2) NO EFFECT ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

4 LAW.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to

5 limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual

6 property.

7 ‘‘(3) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this section

8 shall be construed to prevent any State from enforc9 ing any State law that is consistent with this sec10 tion.

11 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section:

12 ‘‘(1) INTERNET.—The term ‘Internet’ means

13 the international computer network of both Federal

14 and non-Federal interoperable packet switched data

15 networks.

16 ‘‘(2) INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE.—The

17 term ‘interactive computer service’ means any infor18 mation service that provides computer access to mul19 tiple users via modem to a remote computer server,

20 including specifically a service that provides access

21 to the Internet.

22 ‘‘(3) INFORMATION CONTENT PROVIDER.—The

23 term ‘information content provider’ means any per24 son or entity that is responsible, in whole or in part,

25 for the creation or development of information pro-
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1 vided by the Internet or any other interactive com2 puter service, including any person or entity that

3 creates or develops blocking or screening software or

4 other techniques to permit user control over offen5 sive material.

6 ‘‘(4) INFORMATION SERVICE.—The term ‘infor7 mation service’ means the offering of a capability for

8 generating, acquiring, storing, transforming, proc9 essing, retrieving, utilizing, or making available in10 formation via telecommunications, and includes elec11 tronic publishing, but does not include any use of

12 any such capability for the management, control, or

13 operation of a telecommunications system or the

14 management of a telecommunications service.’’.

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