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106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1930

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the operator of a

World Wide Web site that offers to provide communication with any

prisoner to disclose on the site the crime for which the prisoner is

incarcerated and the release date for the prisoner.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 25, 1999

Mr. LOBIONDO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Commerce

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the

operator of a World Wide Web site that offers to provide

communication with any prisoner to disclose on the site

the crime for which the prisoner is incarcerated and

the release date for the prisoner.

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 ‘‘Prisoner Web Site Dis5 closure Act of 1999’’.
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1 SEC. 2. REQUIRED WEB SITE DISCLOSURES.

2 Part I of title II of the Communications Act of 1934

3 (47 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end

4 the following new section:

5 ‘‘SEC. 232. REQUIRED INCLUSION ON WORLD WIDE WEB

6 SITES OFFERING COMMUNICATIONS WITH

7 PRISONERS.

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any per9 son to make an offer, by means of the World Wide Web,

10 to provide any communication with any incarcerated indi11 vidual unless such offer also contains notice, in a clear

12 and conspicuous manner, of—

13 ‘‘(1) the crime or crimes for which such indi14 vidual is incarcerated; and

15 ‘‘(2) the earliest date on which such individual

16 may be released from incarceration under the terms

17 of the individual’s sentence.

18 ‘‘(b) INAPPLICABILITY TO CARRIERS AND OTHER

19 SERVICE PROVIDERS.—For purposes of subsection (a), a

20 person shall not be considered to make any offer to the

21 extent that such person is—

22 ‘‘(1) a telecommunications carrier engaged in

23 the provision of a telecommunications service;

24 ‘‘(2) a person engaged in the business of pro25 viding an Internet access service;
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1 ‘‘(3) a person engaged in the business of pro2 viding an Internet information location tool; or

3 ‘‘(4) a person similarly engaged in the trans4 mission, storage, retrieval, hosting, formatting, or

5 translation (or any combination thereof) of a com6 munication made by another person, without selec7 tion or alteration of the content of the communica8 tion, except that such person’s deletion of a par9 ticular communication or material made by another

10 person in a manner consistent with subsection (c) or

11 section 230 shall not constitute such selection or al12 teration of the content of the communication.

13 ‘‘(c) CIVIL PENALTY.—Whoever is determined by the

14 Commission, on the record after opportunity for a hearing,

15 to have violated subsection (a) shall be subject to a civil

16 penalty of not more than $1,000 for each violation. For

17 purposes of this subsection, each incarcerated individual

18 for whom an offer referred to in subsection (a) is made

19 shall constitute a separate violation.

20 ‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section, the

21 following definitions shall apply:

22 ‘‘(1) BY MEANS OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB,

23 INTERNET, INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE, INTERNET

24 INFORMATION LOCATION TOOL.—The terms ‘by

25 means of the World Wide Web’, ‘Internet’, ‘Internet
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1 access service’, and ‘Internet information location

2 tool’ have the meanings given such terms in section

3 231(e).

4 ‘‘(2) INCARCERATED INDIVIDUAL.—The term

5 ‘incarcerated individual’ means any individual who,

6 pursuant to a criminal conviction under State or

7 Federal law, is incarcerated in any State or Federal

8 prison, jail, workhouse, or other penal or correc9 tional institution.

10 ‘‘(e) APPLICABILITY.—The prohibition under sub11 section (a) shall apply to offers made on and after Janu12 ary 1, 2000.’’.

13 SEC. 3. PUBLIC INFORMATION.

14 As soon as practicable after the enactment of this

15 Act, the Federal Communications Commission shall make

16 widely available information that is designed to inform the

17 public regarding the prohibition under section 232 of the

18 Communications Act of 1934 (as added by section 2 of

19 this Act), and what actions constitute violations of the

20 prohibition, by making such information available—

21 (1) on the World Wide Web site of the Commis22 sion; and

23 (2) in such other manners as the Commission

24 considers appropriate.

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