1. The CDA will be codified at 47 U.S.C. 223(a) to (h). In the body of this Adjudication, we refer to the provisions of the CDA as they will ultimately be codified in the United States Code. 2. The plaintiffs in this action are the American Civil Liberties Union; Human Rights Watch; Electronic Privacy Information Center; Electronic Frontier Foundation; Journalism Education Association; Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility; National Writers Union; Clarinet Communications Corp.; Institute for Global Communications; Stop Prisoner Rape; AIDS Education Global Information System; Bibliobytes; Queer Resources Directory; Critical Path AIDS Project, Inc.; Wildcat Press, Inc.; Declan McCullagh dba Justice on Campus; Brock Meeks dba Cyberwire Dispatch; John Troyer dba The Safer Sex Page; Jonathan Wallace dba The Ethical Spectacle; and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. We refer to these plaintiffs collectively as the ACLU. 3. The plaintiffs in the second action, in addition to the ALA, are: American Online, Inc.; American Booksellers Association, Inc.; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; American Society of Newspaper Editors; Apple Computer, Inc.; Association of American Publishers, Inc.; Association of Publishers, Editors and Writers; Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition; Commercial Internet Exchange Association; CompuServe Incorporated; Families Against Internet Censorship; Freedom to Read Foundation, Inc.; Health Sciences Libraries Consortium; Hotwired Ventures LLC; Interactive Digital Software Association; Interactive Services Association; Magazine Publishers of America; Microsoft Corporation; The Microsoft Network, L.L.C.; National Press Photographers Association; Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc.; Newspaper Association of America; Opnet, Inc.; Prodigy Services Company; Society of Professional Journalists; Wired Ventures, Ltd. We refer to these plaintiffs collectively as the ALA. The eight counts of the amended complaint in this action focus on the CDA's amendment to 47 U.S.C. 223, and do not challenge the CDA's amendment of 18 U.S.C. 1462(c). 4. In addition, we have received briefs of amici curiae supporting and opposing plaintiffs' contentions. Arguing in favor of our granting the motions for preliminary injunction are Authors Guild, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Ed Carp, Coalition for Positive Sexuality, CONNECTnet, Creative Coalition on AOL, Tri Dang Do, Feminists for Free Expression, Margarita Lacabe, Maggie LaNoue, LoD Communications, Peter Ludlow, Palmer Museum of Art, Chuck More, Rod Morgan, PEN American Center, Philadelphia Magazine, PSINet, Inc., Eric S. Raymond, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Don Rittner, The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, Lloyd K. Stires, Peter J. Swanson, Kirsti Thomas, Web Communications, and Miryam Ehrlich Williamson. Opposing the motion are the Family Life Project of the American Center for Law and Justice and a group consisting of The National Law Center for Children and Families, Family Research Council, "Enough Is Enough!" Campaign, National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, and Morality in Media. 5. The Act does not define "telecommunications device". By Order dated February 27, 1996, we asked the parties to address whether a modem is a "telecommunications device". Plaintiffs and the Government answered in the affirmative, and we agree that the plain meaning of the phrase and the legislative history of the Act strongly support their conclusion. "Telecommunications" under 47 U.S.C. 153(48) means "the transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user's choosing, without change in the form of content of the information as sent and received." The plain meaning of "device" is "something that is formed or formulated by design and usu[ally] with consideration of possible alternatives, experiment, and testing." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, 618 (1986). Clearly, the sponsors of the CDA thought it would reach individual Internet users, many of whom still connect through modems. See, e.g., 141 Cong. Rec. S8329-46 (daily ed. June 14, 1995) (statements of Sen. Exon and Sen. Coats). The resolution of the tension between the scope of "telecommunications device" and the scope of "interactive computer service" as defined in 47 U.S.C. 230(a)(2), see infra note 6, must await another day. It is sufficient for us to conclude that the exclusion of 223(h)(1)(B) is probably a narrow one (as the Government has argued), insulating an interactive computer service from criminal liability under the CDA but not insulating users who traffic in indecent and patently offensive materials on the Internet through those services. 6. The statute at 509 amends 47 U.S.C. to add 230(e)(2), which defines such a service as "any information service, system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server, including specifically a service or system that provides access to the Internet and such systems operated or services offered by libraries or educational institutions." 7. In the Government's Opposition to plaintiffs' motion for a temporary restraining order in C.A. No. 96-963, it notes "the Department has a longstanding policy that previous such provisions are unconstitutional and will not be enforced", and that both President Clinton and General Reno "have made th[e] point clear" that no one will be prosecuted under "the abortion- related provision of newly-amended 18 U.S.C. 1462(c)." Opposition at 19, n.11 (February 14, 1996). In view of this "longstanding policy", the Government contends there is no realistic fear of prosecution and, so the argument goes, no need for equitable relief. Id. In their post-hearing brief, the ACLU plaintiffs inform us that in view of the Government's statement, "they do not seek a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of 1462(c)." Post-Trial Brief of ACLU Plaintiffs at 2 n.2. 8. The court again expresses its appreciation to the parties for their cooperative attitude in evolving the stipulation. 9. The Government has not by motion challenged the standing of any plaintiff in either case, and we harbor no doubts of our own on that point, notwithstanding the Government's suggestion in a footnote of its post-hearing brief. See Defendants' Post-Hearing Memorandum at 37 n.46 ("Plaintiffs' assertions as to the speech at issue are so off-point as to raise standing concerns."). Descriptions of these plaintiffs, as well as of the nature and content of the speech they contend is or may be affected by the CDA, are set forth in paragraphs 70 through 356 at pages 30 through 103 of the parties' stipulation filed in these actions. These paragraphs will not be reproduced here, but will be deemed adopted as Findings of the court. 10. It became clear from the testimony that moderated newsgroups are the exception and unmoderated newsgroups are the rule. 11. The evidence adduced at the hearings provided detail to this paragraph of the parties' stipulation. See Findings 95 to 107. 12. Testimony adduced at the hearing suggests that market forces exist to limit the availability of material on-line that parents consider inappropriate for their children. Although the parties sharply dispute the efficacy of so-called "parental empowerment" software, there is a sufficiently wide zone of agreement on what is available to restrict access to unwanted sites that the parties were able to enter into twenty-one paragraphs of stipulated facts on the subject, which form the basis of paragraphs 49 through 69 of our Findings of fact. Because of the rapidity of developments in this field, some of the technological facts we have found may become partially obsolete by the time of publication of these Findings. 13. This membership is constantly growing, according to the testimony of Albert Vezza, Chairman of the World Wide Web Consortium. See also Defendants' Ex. D-167. 14. See also Defendants' Ex. D-174 and the testimony of Mr. Vezza. 15. From this point, our Findings are, unless noted, no longer based upon the parties' stipulation, but upon the record adduced at the hearings. 16. Mr. Bradner is a member of the Internet Engineering Task Force, the group primarily responsible for Internet technical standards, as well as other Internet-related associations responsible for, among other things, the prevailing Internet Protocols. He is also associated with Harvard University. 17. Dr. Olsen chairs the Computer Science Department at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and is the recently-appointed Director of the Human Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie- Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 18. The term "information content provider" is defined in 509 of the CDA, at the new 47 U.S.C. 230(e)(3), as "any person or entity that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development of information provided through the Internet or any other interactive computer service." 19. By "verification", we mean the method by which a user types in his or her credit card number, and the Web site ensures that the credit card is valid before it allows the user to enter the site. 20. InterNIC is a naming organization, not a regulator of content. InterNIC and two other European organizations maintain a master list of domain names to ensure that no duplication occurs. Creators of Web sites must register their domain name with InterNIC, and the agency will instruct the creator to choose another name if the new Web site has the name of an already- existing site. InterNIC has no control over content on a site after registration. 21. This paragraph and the preceding paragraph also illustrate that a content provider might store its own material or someone else's on a caching server. The goal -- saving money and time -- is the same in both cases.
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