I
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Prisoner Web Site Dis-
closure Act of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. REQUIRED WEB SITE DISCLOSURES.
Part I of title II of the Communications Act of 1934
(47 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end
the following new section:
‘‘SEC. 232. REQUIRED INCLUSION ON WORLD WIDE WEB
SITES OFFERING COMMUNICATIONS WITH
PRISONERS.
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any per-
son to make an offer, by means of the World Wide Web,
to provide any communication with any incarcerated indi-
vidual unless such offer also contains notice, in a clear
and conspicuous manner, of—
‘‘(1) the crime or crimes for which such indi-
vidual is incarcerated; and
‘‘(2) the earliest date on which such individual
may be released from incarceration under the terms
of the individual’s sentence.
‘‘(b) INAPPLICABILITY
TO CARRIERS
AND OTHER
SERVICE PROVIDERS.—For purposes of subsection (a), a
person shall not be considered to make any offer to the
extent that such person is—
‘‘(1) a telecommunications carrier engaged in
the provision of a telecommunications service;
‘‘(2) a person engaged in the business of pro-
viding an Internet access service;
‘‘(3) a person engaged in the business of pro-
viding an Internet information location tool; or
‘‘(4) a person similarly engaged in the trans-
mission, storage, retrieval, hosting, formatting, or
translation (or any combination thereof) of a com-
munication made by another person, without selec-
tion or alteration of the content of the communica-
tion, except that such person’s deletion of a par-
ticular communication or material made by another
person in a manner consistent with subsection (c) or
section 230 shall not constitute such selection or al-
teration of the content of the communication.
‘‘(c) CIVIL PENALTY.—Whoever is determined by the
Commission, on the record after opportunity for a hearing,
to have violated subsection (a) shall be subject to a civil
penalty of not more than $1,000 for each violation. For
purposes of this subsection, each incarcerated individual
for whom an offer referred to in subsection (a) is made
shall constitute a separate violation.
‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section, the
following definitions shall apply:
‘‘(1) BY MEANS OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB,
INTERNET, INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE, INTERNET
INFORMATION
LOCATION
TOOL.—The terms ‘by
means of the World Wide Web’, ‘Internet’, ‘Internet
access service’, and ‘Internet information location
tool’ have the meanings given such terms in section
231(e).
‘‘(2) INCARCERATED
INDIVIDUAL.—The term
‘incarcerated individual’ means any individual who,
pursuant to a criminal conviction under State or
Federal law, is incarcerated in any State or Federal
prison, jail, workhouse, or other penal or correc-
tional institution.
‘‘(e) APPLICABILITY.—The prohibition under sub-
section (a) shall apply to offers made on and after Janu-
ary 1, 2000.’’.
SEC. 3. PUBLIC INFORMATION.
As soon as practicable after the enactment of this
Act, the Federal Communications Commission shall make
widely available information that is designed to inform the
public regarding the prohibition under section 232 of the
Communications Act of 1934 (as added by section 2 of
this Act), and what actions constitute violations of the
prohibition, by making such information available—
(1) on the World Wide Web site of the Commis-
sion; and
(2) in such other manners as the Commission
considers appropriate.
Æ