High court to give voice to Internet speech

Content providers are expected to know early next year how the First Amendment is interpreted on the Internet, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the Communications Decency Act of 1996. The law, tacked onto the Telecommunications Reform Act, makes it a crime for anyone to transmit indecent material to minors. Arguments in the case are expected to be heard in March.

The law recognizes that carriers don't originate content and should not be held responsible for Internet traffic that they don't write or know anything about. Still, carriers are among many concerned about Internet free speech and how the U.S. Justice Department and other prosecutors will interpret it, said Jerry Berman, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

The center spearheaded a coalition that held a cyberspace briefing for a three-judge panel in Philadelphia that ruled the Communications Decency Act unconstitutional. The plaintiffs in that case included America Online, Microsoft, Prodigy, Compuserve and the American Library Association. A federal court in New York also blocked the act's enforcement, but the Supreme Court is not hearing that case.

Carriers already offer parents tools to block offensive material from their children. BellSouth provides Surfwatch Software-as part of its BellSouth.net service-that updates a list each month of pornographic, violent and hateful sites that can be blocked from access. "We're not going to be proprietary on content or on other features," said a spokesman.

OVS ENTERS URBAN MARKETS After submitting more information, MFS Communications won the FCC's approval last week to operate as an open video systems provider in New York and Boston. The move cleared the way for RCN Inc. to offer competitive video service to urban customers using MFS' network. MCI TARGETS CALIFORNIA MCI last week started offering local service to residents and businesses in Los Angeles and San Diego over its own networks. The interexchange carrier started developing the fiber optic networks and digital switching centers throughout the country more than two years ago and now offers local service in 16 major markets.