Telcom bill report

Here's the additional info from Reuters. As usual, Clinton is being a
coward. For additional Cypherpunks relevance, anonymous remailer operators in
the US may need to watch out.
	-Allen

   Reuters New Media
   
   _ Thursday December 21 2:11 PM EST _
   
Congress Reaches Compromise On Telecom Reform

   WASHINGTON - Congressional conferees have agreed to a sweeping reform
   of telecommunications law that would open competition by allowing the
   telephone, cable and broadcast industries to invade the others' turf.
   
   Vice President Gore says President Clinton will sign the bill. Before
   the agreement, the president had been threatening for months to veto
   the bill if Republicans in Congress did not retreat on a long list of
   issues. They retreated.
   
   Vice President Al Gore said "This will unleash a new era in the
   telecommunications revolution and speed completion of the information
   highway."
   
   The bill would also impose tough new restrictions on sexual material
   on online services. It has been bitterly opposed by civil rights
   groups who say the controls on sexual content constitute censorship.
   
   The legislation would impose fines of up to $100,000 and prison terms
   of up to two years on people who make "indecent" material
   available to minors over computer networks. That could pose big
   problems for companies that provide online information services.
   
   The "cyberporn" issue was championed by conservative
   religious groups, including the Christian Coalition, and is certain to
   provoke a new courtroom battle over Constitutional rights to free
   speech.

>    The legislation would impose fines of up to $100,000 and prison terms
>    of up to two years on people who make "indecent" material
>    available to minors over computer networks. That could pose big
>    problems for companies that provide online information services.

Perhaps my memory is faulty, but it seems to me that the wording of this part
of the bill (S.652) has been amended a bit. Sec. 402 of 652 now amends Section 
223 (47 U.S.C. 223) subsection (a) to fine or imprison whoever "knowingly 
permits any telecommunications facility under his control to be used for any 
activity prohibited by paragraph (1) [indecent communication with intent to 
annoy blah blah] with the intent that it be used for such activity". (this is
from the "House Appropriation Bill as Passed by the Senate" version of S.652
on http://thomas.loc.gov)

This (new, I think) part requiring "intent that it be used for such activity"
looks like an enormous loophole to me. I can't think of many people who
provide communications services _with the intent that they be used to harass
[etc.] others with obscene [etc.] communications_. 

Could a lawyer comment on why intent would be easier to establish than I
believe offhand ?

-Futplex <futplex@pseudonym.com>