AUI PRESS RELEASE - 03/14/96

(communicated to the litigants before the audience of March 15, 1996)


     _________________________________________________________________



   UEJF (French Union of Jewish Students) has issued a writ against 9
   French Internet Service Providers on the grounds of infringement of
   the French law condemning apology of and incitement to discrimination,
   hate and violence.

   Struggle against racism is a permanent preoccupation, and AUI intends
   to take part in it, by offering technical support to any anti-racist
   organization.

   Nevertheless the legal action undertaken by UEJF, apparently in a
   hurry and without any concertation, seems out of focus, even dangerous.

   Internet is not a "lawless area". This widespread conception is false
   and dangerous. False because every citizen who expresses himself on
   the Internet is submitted to the law like anyone else. Dangerous
   because it implies an a priori censorship which, in our country, has
   not been imposed on any other media.

   The chosen procedure, by judging form instead of content, will bring
   nothing but mediatic turmoil. Neither reflection nor concertation will
   be facilitated ; once again a tool for spreading knowledge and public
   freedom will be mistaken for an infrastructure used only by neo-nazis
   and pedophiles or crackers, a case, at the very worst, extremely
   marginal.

   AUI notices that those who herald either a "lawless area" or an
   anarchist and dangerous tool are neither Internet users nor jurists.
   UEJF writ denotes a patent misunderstanding of this tool. There is a
   confusion between the media using the Internet infrastructure, such as
   newsgroups or electronic mail (which can be assimilated to mail
   transported by the Post Office), and the Web (a service facilitating
   public availability of private pages housed and installed on the ISPs
   computers). Thus, the ISP could be (falsely) considered as a publisher.
   There is an urgent need for concertation between Internet users and
   those who make the law.

   AUI, willing to offer its help in the struggle against racist and
   negationist propaganda on the Internet, invite all the organizations
   concerned by this fight to take part in a common reflection on these
   matters.
     _________________________________________________________________

   Copyright 1996, Association des Utilisateurs d'Internet