and his Bible tells him to honor no other God. Forthis religious practice, Newmeyer and Braunstein were jailed and are nowsuing.FREE SPEECH: We find that technology has given the government an excuse tointerfere with free speech. Claiming that radio frequencies are a limitedresource, the government tells broadcasters what to say (such as news andpublic and local service programming) and what not to say (obscenity, asdefined by the Federal Communications Commission [FCC]). The FCC isinvestigating Boston PBS station WGBH-TV for broadcasting photographs fromthe Mapplethorpe exhibit.FREE SPEECH: There are also laws to limit political statements andcontributions to political activities. In 1985, the Michigan Chamber ofCommerce wanted to take out an advertisement supporting a candidate in thestate house of representatives. But a 1976 Michigan law prohibits acorporation from using its general treasury funds to make independentexpenditures in a political campaign. In March, the Supreme Court upheldthat law. According to dissenting Justice Kennedy, it is now a felony inMichigan for the Sierra Club, the American Civil Liberties Union, or theChamber of Commerce to advise the public how a candidate voted on issues ofurgent concern to their members.FREE PRESS: As in speech, technology has provided another excuse forgovernment intrusion in the press. If you distribute a magazineelectronically and do not print copies, the government doesn't consider youa press and does not give you the same protections courts have extended toprinted news. The equipment used to publish Phrack, a worldwide electronicmagazine about phones and hacking, was confiscated after publishing adocument copied from a Bell South computer entitled "A Bell South StandardPractice (BSP) 660-225-104SV Control Office Administration of Enhanced 911Services for Special Services and Major Account Centers, March, 1988." Allof the information in this document was publicly available from Bell...
