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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1999
> April
> April 9, 1999:
Hour Two: Online Decency and Cold Fusion
In February, a Philadelphia court blocked enforcement of the 1998 Children's Online Protection Act, or COPA (also known to some as CDA II, after the also-invalidated Communications Decency Act.) This week, the Justice Department announced that it was appealing the ruling. The law was designed to help protect children from the seamier side of the internet by requiring companies publishing work that was "harmful to minors" to obtain proof that users were over 17 years old. The law, opposed by a broad group of online publishers ranging from the American Booksellers Association to Playboy Enterprises, was criticized as too broad and harmful to the freedom of speech. | Explaining the decision, Judge Reed observed that "blocking or filtering technology may be at least as successful as COPA would be in restricting minors' access to harmful material online, without imposing the burden on constitutionally protected speech that COPA imposes on adult users or Web site operators." But is filtering software all that the judge thinks it is? And where should the line between free expression and protecting children be drawn in the wilds of cyberspace? We'll talk about it... |  | We'll also talk about a scientific hot potato: cold fusion. Ever since the first cold fusion work was announced ten years ago, reporting fusion in a jar of heavy water on a desktop, the mere concept of cold fusion has polarized the scientific community into two semi-religious camps - those that believe, and those that don't. We'll talk about whether all cold fusion research should be discounted, or if there might be some that's worth a closer look.
Listeners Respond
Guests:
Larry Magid
Editor, Safekids.com
Syndicated Columnist, Los Angeles Times
Author, "The Little PC Book" (Peachpit Press)
San Francisco, CA
Jim Dempsey
Senior Staff Counsel
Center for Democracy and Technology
Washington, DC
Russ George
Chief Scientist
Saturna Technologies
Palo Alto, CA
Michael Schaffer
Senior Staff Scientist
General Atomics
San Diego, CA
Books/Articles Discussed or Mentioned:
"The Little PC Book" By Larry Magid (Peachpit Press)
Related Links:
The ACLU
Center for Democracy and Technology
Peacefire (group against net filters)
Censorware.org (another anti-filter
group)
Safekids.com and SafeTeens.com
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Russ George's research at Saturna Technologies
Cold Fusion Game, Analysis and Story at Cornell
Scientific American Ask the Experts: Cold Fusion
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
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