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cda |
4 definitions found From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]: CDA /C-D-A/ The "Communications Decency Act" of 1996, passed on {Black Thursday} as section 502 of a major telecommunications reform bill. The CDA made it a federal crime in the USA to send a communication which is "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person." It also threatened with imprisonment anyone who knowingly" makes accessible to minors any message that "describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs". While the CDA was sold as a measure to protect minors from the putative evils of pornography, the repressive political aims of the bill were laid bare by the Hyde amendment, which intended to outlaw discussion of abortion on the Internet. To say that this direct attack on First Amendment free-speech rights was not well received on the Internet would be putting it mildly. A firestorm of protest followed, including a February 29th mass demonstration by thousands of netters who turned their {home page}s black for 48 hours. Several civil-rights groups and computing/telecommunications companies mounted a constitutional challenge. The CDA was demolished by a strongly-worded decision handed down on in 8th-circuit Federal court and subsequently affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court on 26 June 1997 (`White Thursday'). See also {Exon}. From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]: CDA 1.{Compound Document Architecture}. 2. {Communications Decency Act}. From V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms 13 March 2001 [vera]: CDA Communications Decency Act (Internet, USA) From V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms 13 March 2001 [vera]: CDA Compound Document Architecture (DEC)
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