same thing). By extension, may be used with other arguments; thus,
over an electronic chat link, `cd ~coffee' would mean "I'm
going to the coffee machine."

:CDA: /C-D-A/ The "Communications Decency Act" of 1996,
passed on {Black Thursday} as section 502 of a major
telecommunications reform bill. The CDA made it a federal crime in
the USA to send a communication which is "obscene,
lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse,
threaten, or harass another person." It also threatens with
imprisonment anyone who "knowingly" makes accessible to minors
any message that "describes, in terms patently offensive as
measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory
activities or organs".

While the CDA was sold as a measure to protect minors from the
putative evils of pornography, the repressive political aims of the
bill were laid bare by the Hyde amendment, which intended to
outlaw discussion of abortion on the Internet.

To say that this direct attack on First Amendment free-speech
rights was not well received on the Internet would be putting it
mildly. A firestorm of protest followed, including a February 29th
mass demonstration by thousands of netters who turned their
{home page}s black for 48 hours. Several civil-rights groups
and computing/telecommunications companies sought an immediate
injunction to block enforcement of the CDA pending a constitutional
challenge. This injunction was granted on the likelihood that
plaintiffs would prevail on the merits of the case. At time of
writing (Spring 1996), the fate of the CDA, and its effect on the