ONLINE CENSORSHIP

TIME's John Dickerson reports that House and Senate negotiators may reach a compromise as soon as this evening between their versions of legislation prohibiting the distribution of "indecent material" over the Internet and online services. House members on a joint committee narrowly voted Wednesday to ban "indecent" material, but to give service providers protection against prosecution. "The online services were worried that using the broad 'indecent' standard, rather than the more narrowly defined 'harmful to minors' standard, would produce a 'chilling effect' by holding them responsible for indecent materials in their system," says TIME's John Dickerson. "But the bill lets providers off the hook by allowing them a 'good faith' defense for those who take reasonable steps to label content and enable users to block objectionable material using user control technologies."