[1997-05-10] Hi. I've assembled the following in a query for feedback and editorial comment. My intent is to: In Article I: Reflect as correctly as possible the general concept of "right" held on the Internet, as Constitutional supplement. In Article II: To state the current government/Internet situation as succinctly as possible. In Article III: To provide specific advice, on how the Government should behave in this matter, and what the goal should be. ...and send the result to our darling Government. My appeal is for advice on phrasing and content. Suggestions on a better forum than this newsgroup are welcome. My e-mail address is: erlkonig@gnu.ai.mit.edu The following has several articles. They are *NOT* official, but are merely my personal proposals. The articles are: I. Networks and the Constitution. II. The Government and the Internet. III. The Issue of Internet Restriction to Science-Only Article I. Networks and the Constitution.----------------------------------- Section 1. Network defined. For purposes of this document, a Network is: a. a collection of one or more machines, usually computers which: b. may or may not be widely distributed geographically, c. may or may not be owned by a multitude of individuals, State Citizens, and persons, including legal or created persons such a corporations, United States citizens, etc., hereinafter referred to as Owners. d. may or may not be connected by electric cables, fibre-optic cable, microchannel tubing, radio or other electomagnetic communications, leased or conventional telephone lines, ISDN lines, or other media, e. may or may not cross national, regional, and/or other jurisdictional, political, or cultural boundaries. f. may or may not be used by the same class as itemized in subsection (c) above, but in this role referred to hereinafter as Users (which may overlap the class of Owners), for the purposes outlined in Section 2, g. and whose uses include those detailed in Section Two (2) following. h. By this definition, USENET, the National Science Foundation's Internet, and an individual's home computer (as a trivial case), may each be referred to as Networks. i. By virtue of these Networks being possessions and effects of their owners, and by virtue of any information on such a Network being equivalent to "papers" as referenced by the Constitution, Networks fall under the purvey and protection of the fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Section 2. Network Use Detailed. Networks, usually in combination with computer software, together act as a virtual forums, whose use by Users includes, but is not limited to: a. Forum and place of assemblage for the exercise of free speech, b. Common carrier of fundamentally private intercommunications, c. Press, revealing and expounding on current events, d. Church for the religious to reach and potentially influence others. e. Means of petition to government. f. By virtue of the activities, and by extension, all Network communications fall under the purvey and protection of the first Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Section 3. Network as House, and its Effects. a. If owned by a Citizen or individual, a Network is part of that one's "house" as referenced in the Constitution, and is therefore under the purvey and protection of the third and fourth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. b. Furthermore, in accordance of the common view upon already extant Networks that such Networks are "home" to the Users with access thereto, and that the information (files, and so forth) thereon constitute "effects" of the Users with access thereto, probable cause to seize the "effects" (files, etc.) within a Network shall not be construed as probable cause to seize the physical Network itself. Section 4. Network Access a. The right of Owner of a Network to control what privileges prospective Users are granted within that Network shall not be infringed. b. The right of any to request such privileges shall not be infringed. c. These assertions based upon the right to make contracts, the lack of any granting of power for the Federal Government to infringe, and the explicit denyal of such power to the State Governments in Article I, Section 10, of the Constitution of the United States. Section 5. Network as Post a. Since Networks often act as a medium for digital communications, much as the Post is but the medium for paper-based communications, the policy that the Post is not responsible for the contents of the messages it transmits, also applies to Networks and their Owners and Users. b. This a but a specific example of the first Amendment protecting both the Post and the Networks from Governmental censure. Article II. The Government and the Internet. --------------------------------- Section 1. Internet Protected The Internet, a Network, is protected by the first Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Section 2. Government Lack of Constitutional Privilege Based upon section one (1) above, the Government clearly has no Constitutional privileges whatsoever in regards creating law, code, or policy limiting the Internet or any such network. Section 3. Government Role in Creation Despite this, the Internet has arisin in great part through Government funding, in aid of the advancement of science, in the furtherance of the Government's role of ensuring the "General Welfare" of the community, as establish in the preamble to the Constitution, and in promotion of the progress of science and useful arts, by extension from Article I, Section 8, regarding patents, in the Constitution. Section 4. Quandary This provides an interesting quandary, as now the Government finds it has created something, as provided by the Constitution`s preamble, that it is forbidden to limit, also as provided by the Constitution, in Amendment I. Section 5. Government Support Grants No Privilege Although many in Government may believe that, since the Government funds a thing, the Government should be within its privileges to control a thing, we find that this conclusion is insupportable. Government's cry of "unfair" (not that the concept is relevant in regards to governments) is easily defeated by the simple observation that nowhere was the Government required to support the Internet. Thus, the issue of: "If it must pay, it must be allowed voice" is no issue at all. Section 6. Government May Only Assist, Not Control The Government has, in pursuit of the General Welfare, albeit unintentially, created a completely new forum for the exercise of fundamental rights, a forum protected expressly by the 1st Amendment of the Constitution from any kind of Government censureship, discrimination, or restriction by any operation of Law, and forum which the Government is not expressly required to fund, although it may choose to do so by operation of the Preamble. Article III. The Issue of Internet Restriction to Science-Only -------------- Section 1. Government May Not Limit Internet Traffic Since the Government is prohibited by action of Amendment I of the Constitution of the United States from any act of censureship or other limitation upon the content of discourse on the Internet, it may not restrict traffic thereon to Science-Only, as been alleged its intent. Section 2. Government May Threaten to Reduce Funding The Government may, however, threaten to reduce its funding therefore, a dishonorable tactic already seen in its arbitrary ceiling on national roads' Speed Limits, achieved by such threats. This is however, a crude control mechanism, in an area where no control mechanism should exist, and should be discarded. Section 3. The Continuous-Connection Principle Most of the Internet is based upon *continuous* connections, the principle of making the initial connection, then paying a flat monthly fee forever after. This encourages the development a broad range of real-time communications which could not thrive in other environments which bill per minute, forcing Users to devolve to batched interactions. These real-time programs, assuming continuous connections, are endemic to the Internet, and define a great portion of if use, utility, and character. Section 4. Per-Minute Fees Will Destroy the Internet However, shunting the entire Internet to commercial vendors will practically destroy it, if those vendors charge on basis of connect time, say at per-minute or per-hour rates. Such rates force Users to batch-format interactions, and stifle development. The devolvement to batch-form would consign more advanced Internet- style tools to the wealthy few, rendering them cost-prohibitive in many cases to the very persons who designed them, and throwing away over a decade of investment. Section 4. Bandwidth-Per-Month Fees The Internet would survive if charges are based on flat-fee monthly subscription, as current private phone lines are, scaled upwards for higher-bandwidth lines. In many ways, this is already seen as normal to Internet Users. Note that, despite what vendors may provide as "technical information", time connected has NO correlation with bandwidth in the Internet sense. Time connected must be continuous; only bandwidth is variable. Section 5. Recommendation: Network Act GOAL: We would likely most benefit if ISDN networking or better were available all the way down to the home-level for flat monthly fees comparable to those for home telephone lines today. PRECEDENT: Rural Electrification Administration of 1935 ---------end