It used to be that if you lived in a cave, you were fairly isolated from world events, not unlike American politicians.

Nowadays, with the 'net and the World Wide Web, even cave-dwellers - with 'net access - can stay in touch. We're not so sure about the politicians, however.

In case your cave is not on-line, you may not have heard about the recent developments in the USA, specifically the new Telecommunications Reform Act signed into law on Thursday, February 8th, by President for now Clinton, and passed by a majority vote of Congress Persons not currently under indictment. We think the final vote was seven to two in favor.

Besides being almost entirely unenforceable, it provides sweeping, incomprehesible rules on what can and can not be viewed, transmitted, or distributed over the 'net. It's not clear as to how the government will regulate the rest of the world, but we're pretty sure that Hillary will be part of it.

In a "digital protest", many sites on the Web changed their pages to display white letters on black backgrounds on February 8th and 9th, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) leading the way with their "Blue Ribbon Campaign For Free Speech" and providing digital bumper stickers to anyone who wanted to stick them on their pages. We did.

Mark Twain once observed, "No man nor beast is safe when the legislature is in session."

See you on-line

Jon Sisk

Original article for Computing News & Review, February, 1996

Copyright © 1996 Jonathan E. Sisk.