We’re expecting a boom in content providers who are starting to say, “People are on the Net. Let’s put stuff up and make money at it.” But this legislation scares them. They’re saying, “I could go to jail if someone thinks it’s indecent and I don’t even know what words I’m allowed to use.”
Predictor: Hoffman, Donna L.
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for The New York Times, Denise Caruso covers the controversy over the Communications Decency Act, which targeted ‘indecent’ material on the Internet. She quotes Donna Hoffman. Caruso writes: ”While most of the outcry has raised valid concerns about the First Amendment and civil liberties, little of the discussion has focused on how censorship could cripple much of the Internet’s commercial potential … If the provisions become law, any user or provider of network services or information who is convicted of violating it would face a possible sentence of two years in jail and fines of as much as $100,000 … The legislation could create restrictions on free speech that are as sweeping as they are vague … and Internet entrepreneurs might not be aware of transgressions until the decency police knocked at their doors. ‘The real danger is to the smaller companies, the new World Wide Web providers and people who want to put up content on the Internet,’ said Donna Hoffman, a Vanderbilt University business professor who specializes in electronic commerce. ‘With the Web creating a new wave in commercial activity,’ she said, ‘we’re expecting a boom in content providers who are starting to say, “People are on the Net. Let’s put stuff up and make money at it.” But this legislation scares them. They’re saying, “I could go to jail if someone thinks it’s indecent and I don’t even know what words I’m allowed to use.”‘”
Date of prediction: December 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: Digital Commerce: The Prospect of Internet Censorship Raises Troubling Issues for Business
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Section D; Page 3; Column 3; Business/Financial Desk
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Krout, Kevin M.