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COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 94 NO. 128 _
____^_ _March 28, 1995_
Bill’s effect
on Internet
challenged
By John Fulwider
Staff Reporter
At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the
uni .general newsgroup has been flooded with
discussion about the Communications Decency
Act of 1995, sponsored by Sen. James Exon, D
Neb.
The bill, which cleared the Senate Com
merce Committee last week, would punish
people who distribute obscene material on com
puter networks with up to two years in jail and
$100,000 in fines.
Exon has said children should be protected
from pornographic material on the Internet. He
said his bill would act as a deterrent to those
who use the Internet to spread obscene material
or harass others.
UNL faculty and students have been posting
messages in the newsgroup, talking about the
pros and cons of the bill and even circulating
electronic petitions to get it stopped.
Steven Reichenbach, an assistant professor
of computer science and engineering and presi
dent of Internet Nebraska, said he was con
cerned with the original language of the amend
ment. It made access providers like his com
pany responsible for messages and images
passed through their networks.
Concerns had been raised that the growth of
the Internet would stop if access providers had
to screen messages to avoid liability.
Reichenbach found all that tough to swal
low.
“You don’t hold the postman responsible if
he delivers pornographic material to you,” he
said.
But Exon worked on the language of the bill,
which now makes clear that the sender and ndt
the carrier of objectionable information is li
able.
Other language in the bill still troubles
Reichenbach. The bill makes illegal communi
cation that is deemed “obscene, lewd, lascivi
ous, filthy or indecent.”
Reichenbach said those words, which are not
defined in the bill, are questionable because
their meanings have been the subject of numer
ous court battles.
He said establishing standards for every com
munity connected by the Internet would be
impractical. Each community sets its own stan
dards in determining what is obscene.
“In a national network of communities,
there’s no way you can fully control where
information flows,” he said. “One community
can establish standards that another may not
subscribe to.”
In addition to being president of an Internet
access provider, Reichenbach is also the father
See EXON on §
Money matters _
Jay Calderon/DN
Sen. Chris Beutler of Lincoln (right) and another senator talk on the sidelines Monday during the morning session
of the Legislature. Senators spent most of the morning debating LB548, sponsored by Beutler. The bill, which failed
to advance from first round debate, was intended to put a tax on campaign contributions.
Amendments help
defeat campaign
reform legislation
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
An experiment in campaign finance re
form for legislative races failed Monday to
advance after senators removed and amended
most of the bill.
LB548, sponsored by Sen. Chris Beutler
of Lincoln, originally tried to tax certain
kinds of campaign contributions to help with
public funding of campaigns.
After the bill failed to get the 20 votes
needed to advance, Beutler said he would
talk with senators to find more support for
the bill.
“It was a very confused situation,” he
said. Beutler said too many senators dis
agreed on different points.
Beutler said a number of senators did not
want to see campaign finance reform, he
said. Other senators wanted to see how the
campaigns would be publicly funded, he
said.
During debate, Beutler offered an amend
ment written by Sen. Tim Hall of Omaha that
would have stripped all the tax language and
given $50,000 each year to legislative races.
Sen. Don Wesely of Lincoln said the
power of the dollar in politics needed to be
diminished.
“It’s clear to me that economic strength
translates into political strength,” he said.
Anymore, Wesely said, only those with ac
cess to money could participate in the elec
toral process.
Answering senators’ questions, Beutler
said the amendment would simply fund the
legislative races for the next two years. He
said senators could come back to the bill and
make a decision on the experiment.
“At least this would allow the experiment
to go forward in a fair fashion,” he said.
The amendment fell 18-10, failing to re
ceive the 20 votes needed to pass.
Another amendment limited the amount
of money candidates could spend on prima
ries. It also stripped the bill of the original tax
language.
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha said he
would not try to kill LB548, but would vote
against it every time it came up.
Chambers said politics was too full of
money to try to reform it. He said reform
See DEBATE on 6
Church group to protest Lied Center dance performance
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
A church group from Kansas will
protest a dance performance at the
Lied Center for Performing Arts to
night to warn people about the dan
gers of homosexuality, church leaders
said.
Pastor Fred W. Phelps said he and
members of the Westboro Baptist
Church in Topeka, Kan., oppose the
Bill T. Jones dance company because
it promotes homosexuality.
Jones is a homosexual who has
been diagnosed with HIV. His dance
company partner, Amie Zane, died of
AIDS last year.
Phelps called Jones the “filthy face
of fag evil.”
“‘Fag’ is a good Bible word that is
a metaphor for sodomy,” he said.
Phelps said Satan was taking over
“through the bestial conduct of per
verts.” Jones’ face appeared in a press
release that was on church letterhead
and had a triangle with “666” written
underneath it.
Homosexuality is not alrait to be
admired or emulated, he said.
“This perverted lifestyle is con
trary to the laws of God and man,” he
said. “It is a crime against nature, and
will inevitably bring doom to 'those
who practice it.”
Jones’ performances praise AIDS
and homosexuality, Phelps said.
Phelps and his church group con
fronted Jones at a protest at the Uni
versity of Kansas’ Lied Center for
Performing Arts in Lawrence, Kan.
“He (Jones) is a pathetidittle guy,
only about five feet tall,” he said. “His
parents believed in the Bible, and he
knows it’s wrong—sodomy’s wrong.
“His only hope is what we’re tell
ing him. He’s gotten in a big mess
listening to the voice of many. All he
needs is some good Bible preaching.”
Jones and his company declined
comment, but Norah Goebel-George,
director of marketing and media rela
tions at Lincoln’s Lied Center for Per
forming Arts, said she expected the
protest tonight at 6:30 to be peaceful.
“We grant their wishes to speak
their views under the First Amend
ment rights,” she said. “The staff and
the dance company are prepared to
make the audience feel comfortable
once they come into the building.”
George said the performance illus
trated how people with HIV and AIDS
remained positive though their physi
cal conditions were weaker.
. The closest thing Lincoln’s Lied
Center has seen to a protest was when
Hillary Clinton spoke there, she said.
Before tonight’s protest, the church
contacted the University of Nebraska
Lincoln and Lincoln Police depart
ments to check city and university
“Thisperverted lifestyle is contrary to the laws of
God and man. It is a crime against nature and
will inevitably bring doom to those who practiced. ”
■
FRED W. PHELPS
Pastor of Westboro Baptist Church
policies and ordinances.
UNL Police Chief Ken Cauble said
the group planned to stay until the
performance began. Protestors are
barred from blocking the entrances or
exits of the building, he said, but po
lice may set aside a space for protest
ors.
Cauble said he was unaware of
previous demonstrations in Nebraska
by the church. Cauble received infor
mation from the University of Kansas
Police Department and said the pro
testors had been peaceful in the past.
KU Sgt. Schuyler Bailey said the
group staged about 10 peaceful pro
tests on campus in the past year.
No charges had ever been filed
against the group, he said. The only
reported incident involved a student
who threw water on the protestors, he
said.
See PROTEST on 3