NET USERS PROTEST NEW LAW\Act unfairly restricts free speech, foes say.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Reports

Jim Etchison says he'd rather risk exposing his two small children to pornography than see free speech restricted on the Internet - and Wednesday he committed a potential act of civil disobedience to make his point.

First, in an e-mail message to President Clinton protesting the Telecommunications Act, the 34-year-old Montrose resident included the so-called "seven dirty words" prohibited in the broadcast media by the Federal Communications Commission.

Then he posted the letter on his personal Web page, which he believes is "a clear breach" of the bill's provisions making it illegal to knowingly make indecent material available to minors on the Internet. Clinton is expected to sign the bill today.

"I don't really want to get arrested, but at the same time I feel compelled to break this law," Etchison said. "I feel it's a very bad law."

Other Internet users are gearing up to go into "virtual mourning" by changing the background color of their Web pages to black with text in white. Most Web pages are white with black type.

Web pages will remain in this virtual state of mourning for 48 hours to protest a provision that would outlaw electronic transmission of indecent and other sexually explicit materials to minors, said Shabbir Safdar, head of Voters Telecommunications Watch, a coordinator of the protest.

Last week, after Congress approved the measure, some opponents began posting blue ribbons on their Web pages. The ribbons linked to a page by the San Francisco-based Electronic Freedom Foundation, which strongly opposes the bill.

On another front, the American Civil Liberties Union and 19 other groups said they would file a court challenge to the indecency provision on the grounds that it is overly broad and a violation of the First Amendment.

At issue is whether the Internet can be regulated like radio and TV.

Supporters of the indecency provision, led by the Christian Coalition, say it legally regulates speech to shield children from harmful material. Courts have upheld such restrictions for TV and radio.