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16 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 279 (2002)
Bomb-Making Manauls on the Internet: Maneuvering a Solution through First Amendment Jurisprudence

handle is hein.journals/ndlep16 and id is 285 raw text is: BOMB-MAKING MANUALS ON THE INTERNET: MANEUVERING A SOLUTION THROUGH FIRST AMENDMENT JURISPRUDENCE BRYAN J. YEAZEL* I. BACKGROUND OF REGULATION ON THE INTERNET As early as 1995, the United States Congress moved to imple- ment legislation regulating the dissemination of explosives infor- mation on the Internet. In June of 1995, Senator Feinstein (D- CA) proposed legislation to address the problem of increasingly widespread 'distribution of bomb-making information for crimi- nal purposes.'1 The proposed legislation would have made it unlawful to disseminate or instruct others in the means of con- structing incendiary devices.' Senator Feinstein's legislation portended to be one of the government's first attempts at regulating conduct in cyber- space.3 However, the amendment slipped into legislative obliv- * Editor, NOTRE DAME J.L. ETHICS & PUB. POL'Y, 2001-2002. Thomas J. White Scholar 2000-2002.J.D. Candidate, Notre Dame Law School, 2002. B.A., magna cum laude, Wake Forest University, 1997. The author dedicates this Note to his wife, Melissa, without whom the pursuit of his legal education would have never been realized. The author would like to thank his parents Richard and Frances Yeazel, and his mother and father-in-law, Harold and Mary Lou Mur- phy, for their enduring support during the course of his legal education. 1. DEP'T OF JUSTICE, 1997 REPORT ON THE AvAILABILITY OF BOMBMAKING INFORMATION 5 (1997), available at http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cyber crime/bombmakinginfo.html (last visited Nov. 26, 2001); see also Appendix A for text of Feinstein amendment. 2. DEP'T OFJUSTICE, supra note 1. The amendment specifically provided: It shall be unlawful for any person to teach or demonstrate the making of explosive materials, or to distribute by any means information per- taining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture of explosive materials, if the person intends or knows, that such explosive materials or infor- mation will likely be used for, or in furtherance of, an activity that constitutes a Federal criminal offense or a criminal offense of a crimi- nal purpose affecting interstate commerce. Id. at BACKGROUND. 3. The author William Gibson is credited with coining the term cyber- space in his science fiction novel NEUROMANCER. Gibson conceptualized cyber- space as a shared hallucination that served as a medium through which people could interact and where computer constructs provided sensory rich- ness and intellectual challenge. See VRML WORKS, Cyberspace, available at http:/ /home.hiwaay.net/-crispen/vrmlworks/ (last visited Nov. 27, 2001) (quoting William Gibson) (Web page on file with the NOTRE DAME J.L. ETHICS & PUB.

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