United States Government Announces Solutions
To Ensure A Safer Internet
WASHINGTON, DC-The United States Government
announces today a series of broad-based
solutions to ensure that the inhabitants
of Cyberspace enjoy a safer internet. Members
of Congress have thought long and hard about
this and have made a series of policy decisions
on Internet issues that will ease the use
of the internet for all users.
Bureau of Internet Affairs
The United States has established a Bureau
of Internet Affairs "BIA" under
the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC")
that protects Internet users' rights and
interests in the federal government, and
throughout the several States and Outlying
Areas. The BIA provides vital services and
opportunities to all American Internet users.
The new federal agency can contract with
private companies, and with local and state
agencies, to ensure that essential Internet
users needs are met in every rural, urban
and suburban area in America.
The FCC is an independant government agency
charged with regulating interstate and international
communications by radio, television, wire,
satellite, cable, and the internet.
Domain Names
Congress has been aware, over the last year
or so, of the increasing number of trademark
disputes that are occuring with internet
domain names. We believe this is largely
due to the increasing use by criminals of
the internet domain name space. To prevent
further widespread criminal activity, all
Domain Name Service ("DNS") activity
will be halted immediately until appropriate
laws can be passed to allow proper DNS regulation
by the FCC. As of today, it becomes a criminal
offence to give out a domain name in order
to solicit commerce over the internet, or
to use domain names to connect to computers
that could have been contacted instead by
a perfectly usable IP address. Instead,
users are required to give out the host
IP address of the computer they wish to
identify.
Temporary licenses are obtainable through
the FCC which grant restricted use of DNS
to qualified organizations provided that
the DNS is only used on an internal intranet
which is not connected in any way to the
public internet.
The FCC will shortly begin issuing internet
broadcast licenses as a replacement to domain
names. [A "Domain Name" is the
name after the '@' symbol in your email
address. An "IP Address" is a
number that is used to identify a computer
on the internet]
Protecting US Borders
In order to win the battle to keep pornography
out of American children's school computer
networks, Congress has decided that we must
eradicate all foreign pornography from the
US internet. Starting today, work will begin
to "firewall" the US part of the
internet from the rest of the world. As
security experts acknowledge, this is the
most effective method of creating a secure
network of computers immune from the evils
of hackers, child-pornographers, and other
unsociable influences, short of disconnecting
it altogether.
United States Customs begins accepting applications
today from organizations who are passing
internet traffic across international borders
for US Firewall licenses. Failure to obtain
a US Firewall license within the next 30
days will result in the removal of that
organization from the US internet border,
and, as with any border, there will be stiff
penalties for improper use, smuggling of
digital contraband, etc.
As a condition of US Customs granting a
US Firewall license, each organization operating
a border firewall will implement the "Clipper
Packet Filtering" protocol on their
firewall equipment. This is an exciting
new technology that implements the same
kind of rating system as the V-Chip, except
that it is enhanced to identify criminal
activity occuring at the US internet border
that could harm or damage computer property.
As a result, all viruses, trojan horses,
and other potentially damaging computer
programs will not be granted access onto
the US internet. In addition, criminals
(such as drug smugglers) using encryption
technology will not be able to pass encrypted
messages through the border firewall without
it first being decoded by a law enforcement
official.
Telephone Software Regulation
A growing number of companies are selling
software programs with ancillary hardware
options that enable a computer to transmit
voice conversations.
This, in fact, creates the ability to "by-pass"
local, long distance and international carriers
and allows for calls to be made for virtually
"no cost." For example, on-line
service providers generally charge users
around $10.00 for five hours of access and
then around $3.00 for each additional hour.
Five hours equals 300 minutes, divided by
$10 is 3.3 cents per minute. The average
residential long distance telephone call
costs about 22 cents per minute or seven
times as much.
The FCC now has been given jurisdiction
over the use of the Internet for unregulated
interstate and international telecommunications
services. Use of voice telephony software
now must be approved by the FCC to operate
and users must file tariffs before both
the FCC and state public service commissions.
It is now a criminal offense to make telephone
calls over the internet that are not first
approved by the FCC.
Exon Machine
A number of outstanding internet problems
can be solved if we are able to identify
the age of the person accessing the internet.
Internet Providers ("ISP") would
be able to automatically filter out undesirable
material targeted towards our childen when
they used the internet. Thanks to the new
"Exon Machine" (otherwise known
as the "Exon Social Security Server",
and named after Sen. James Exon) which stores
social security information on over 240
million Americans at each ISP, the ISP will
be able to determine who the internet user
is, and route approved portions of the internet
to them when unlocked by the Exon Machine.
Exon Press Secretary Russ Rader has described
this as "one of the most exciting solutions
available to the NSA today".
We look forward to making the internet a
safer place for you.
See you on-line!
Sincerely,
Congressman Rick White
http://www.house.gov/white/
Senator Patrick Leahy
http://www.house.gov/~leahy
Congressman Rick Boucher
http://www.house.gov/boucher/welcome.htm
Senator Larry Pressler
http://www.senate.gov/senator/pressler.html
Speaker Newt Gingrich
mailto:georgia6@hr.house.gov
Congressman Jack Fields
Congressman Edward Markey
Congressman Mike Oxley
http://www.house.gov/oxley/welcome.html
Congressman Christopher Cox
Congresswoman Anna Eshoo
http://www-eshoo.house.gov/
Congressman Bob Goodlatte
mailto:talk2bob@hr.house.gov
Congressman Tom Campbell
mailto:campbell@hr.house.gov
Congressman Robert Walker
http://www.house.gov/walker/welcome.html
Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn
mailto:dunnwa08@hr.house.gov
Congressman Vern Ehlers
http://www.house.gov/ehlers/welcome.html
Senator Slade Gorton
http://www.senate.gov/senator/gorton.html
Senator Conrad Burns
http://www.senate.gov/~burns
Senator Ron Wyden
http://www.senate.gov/senator/wyden.html
Congressman Sam Farr
http://www.house.gov/farr/welcome.html
Congressman Bill Luther
http://www.house.gov/luther/welcome.html
Congresswoman April Fool
|
