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THE BLUE RIBBON CAMPAIGN for Online Freedom of Speech, Press and Association
This page is one of the 6 most-linked-to pages on the entire World Wide Web!

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US Supreme Court agrees to hear CDA appeal
Constitutional challenge against Communications "Decency" Act enters final phase.

This grassroots campaign for online intellectual freedom brought to you by:

* American Civil Liberties Union * Center for Democracy & Technology *
* Electronic Frontier Foundation * Electronic Privacy Information Center *
* Internet Action Group * Voters' Telecommunications Watch *


Last updated: 11:34pm PST, Dec. 10, 1996.

Check out the
Online Intellectual Property Resource Page.
The next series of attacks on online free speech may not stem from moralizing, but may instead be launched in the name of "database protection" and "copyright management". Familarize yourself with the issues, the the proposals, and the stakes now, with this concise overview.
Blue Ribbon Intro Blue Ribbon Graphics ACTIVISM
Fed. US Update State-level & Global Updates Other Blue Ribbon Pages
Archive Sites That Could be Banned Skeptical?

Send questions about the Blue Ribbon Campaign to ask@eff.org

Blue Ribbon Campaign Introduction

A blue ribbon is chosen as the symbol for the preservation of basic civil rights in the electronic world. The blue ribbon is of course inspired by the yellow POW/MIA and red AIDS/HIV ribbons, and also by the various (U.S.) Second Amendment, child abuse, Israel awareness, and public land usage rights blue ribbons, the breast cancer pink ribbon, etc.*

EFF and other civil liberties groups ask that a blue ribbon be worn or displayed to show support for the essential human right of free speech. This fundamental building block of free society, affirmed by the U.S. Bill of Rights in 1791, and by the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, has been sacrificed in the 1996 Telecom Bill.

The Blue Ribbon will be a way to raise awareness of these issues, from locally to globally, and for the quiet voice of reason to be heard.

The voice of reason knows that free speech doesn't equate to sexual harassment, abuse of children, or the breeding of hatred or intolerance.

We insist that any material that's legal in bookstores, newspapers, or public libraries must be legal online.

See immediately below for info on how to get Blue Ribbon graphics for your WWW pages: Join the Blue Ribbon Internet Free Speech movement - the grassroots campaign for online intellectual freedom!


Legislative & Legal Info

Blue Ribbon Graphics

All Web users are strongly encouraged to place a Blue Ribbon graphic on their servers, such as the ones below. (Click on each to download if your browser requires this.)

[Big Blue Ribbon icon - click here to download] [Small version - click here to download] [Square Blue Ribbon icon, black background, text: 'Supporting Free Speech on the Net' - click here to download]

NOTE: You do NOT need to ask for permission to use these graphics. They are public domain, created either by EFF, or by people who have voluntarily donated new icons to the collection.

If you would like to point your Blue Ribbon icon at EFF's Blue Ribbon page (the page you are reading now), you can add this HTML Anchor to your homepage (or a similar one, pointing to another Blue Ribbon Site).

Many other versions are available, including borderless, transparent, grey and black backrounds, smaller versions, an outline version, and a textless version for incorporation into larger banners (as a standalone icon, please use the versions with text, so people have some idea that there IS a Blue Ribbon Campaign and what it is about when they first encounter it - not everyone has a color monitor, so the verbal name of the campaign is important to pass around.) Thank you for your support and activism, and remember - it's YOUR rights you are fighting for! Wear a real blue ibbon, so people ask you what it's all about.

If you are not sure why you need to participate in the Blue Ribbon Campaign and stand up for your free speech, or uncertain how your rights are threatened, please see our Internet Censorship Legislation Alerts Page


Other Blue Ribbon Pages

 Here are some other sites providing Blue Ribbon pages. You might wish to refer people to one of these sites as well as or in place of ours. This will help reduce load on our system, and help spread the word into other online communities (e.g. via having someone within each community provide a Blue Ribbon page, rather than everyone having to figure out who we are and how we relate to their interests) This is *not* a list of people supporting the Blue Ribbon Campaign and putting Blue Ribbons on their WWW pages - there are already thousands!



For a humor break, see the CensorU Movement (C.U.M.) www pages - a parody of the theocratic right, with its own red pro-censorship ribbon. And there's the Blue Ribbon Prank Page, which elaborately plays on the theocratic party line that "indecency = pornography". Also, the Free Peaches Online mock-campaign might cheer you up. New on the block is a page satirizing a hypothetical Communications Decency Administration (with some serious activism suggestions as well as parody material.)

NET Party catches the government itself violating the CDA

And, to get back to being serious, a Christian book publisher proves, in case people have forgotten, that most religious people and institutions are not censorsious theocrats. Wanting to hone in on a paricular point, Zondervan Publishing House has created a derivative of the Blue Ribbon Campaign: the Green Ribbon Campaign for Responsibility in Free Speech. Their introductory page says, in part, "the right to free speech is one of the most important and fundamental rights of liberty....We support the right to free speech in all its forms. We also call for responsibility in exercising this right", without demanding censorship. Nice to see people advocating that *individuals* learn to act responsibily, instead of demanding that governments force everyone into someone else's moral suit. (One should note that the green ribbon also stands for marijuana legalization activism.)


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