At first glance, newsgroups on "the list" seemed to have only sexually oriented themes. But they weren't the only ones deemed too smutty for inside-the-border viewing. A newsgroup for the survivors of sexual abuse, one design to help gay teens deal with societal issues, and even a newsgroup devoted to Star Trek's Captain Picard were deemed too hot to handle...

"This wasn't a narrowly tailored attack on things that may be illegal. They looked for the word 'sex' and without thinking anything more about it, banned it all," says David Banisar, from the Electronic Privacy Information Center...

Somebody was driven to remove stuff without even knowing what they were removing," says ClariNet publisher and CEO Brad Templeton. "CompuServe should have had its lawyers fighting it. Nobody wants govenments handing out approved reading lists..."

The bottom line is censorship is censorship. It stifles communication and creates a chilling effect, says Jaron Lanier, known for his work on virtual reality.

"Getting to the point that merely talking to someone else makes you a criminal liable to jail sentence is like poison to a democracy."