[NTLUG:Discuss] YIKES! Texas bill could render firewalls/routers illegal...

[Rick Moncello]

On Sat, 2003-03-29 at 22:45, kbrannen at gte.net wrote:
    Kelledin wrote:
    > On Friday 28 March 2003 04:57 pm, Rob Apodaca wrote:
    > 
    >>"...conceal from a communication service provider, or from any
    >>lawful authority..."
    
    I haven't read the whole bill, but the top part says:
    
    AN ACT relating to the criminal and civil consequences of conduct
    involving the theft of or tampering with certain communication or
    information services.

I'm glad someone else besides me seems to have actually read at least
part of the original bill.

There is one place in the original posting which used ellipses to
conceal the fact that the bill was talking about criminal intent.

Let's take a look at what is really being said, and going on, here. . .
This bill talks about hiding the source of a communication.  Does it
really matter to the feds, the ISP, or anyone else, if that email I sent
came from my Linux firewall/server/router or my iMac which is NAT'd
behind it???  They still have enough information to determin the source
of any packet leaving my home is my "computer".  They may not know
exactly which one of the nine I have running here sent it, but whichever
one it was is still mine.  I have not concealed who sent the email or
where it was going.

Now, if I use that NAT to offer dial-up service to friends, relatives,
neighbors, foreign nationals. . . whatever, then I am attempting to
defraud the ISP and this bill would apply.

I think I've rambled on enough
    
    This makes it sound like they're trying to do the IT equivalent of people 
    stealing "cable service".  Though as someone else pointed out, the "letter of 
    the law" is what gets enforced and may be beyond the original "spirit of the 
    law". :-/
    
    ...
    > 
    > Well, the traditional means is to send a letter to your local 
    > government representative.  On the federal level, this would be 
    > your Congressman, but that doesn't really apply here.  Not sure 
    > what the equivalent would be on the state level...
    
    The state of Texas has equivalents.  For those of us in the northwest DFW 
    area, that would be TX Senator Jane Nelson.  But Dallas has 2, and Fort Worth 
    has its own as well; see http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legis/members/roster.cfm 
    (make sure it's set to the 78th legislature).  Your TX Representive will 
    depend on where you live, and that same URL will list them too, though finding 
    which one is yours is not overly easy.  There may be an easier way, but I've 
    yet to find it.
    
    Last minute note, see http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/fyi/fyi.htm to find your 
    representive and sentor.  So now I know my representive is Mary Denny, as well 
    as both her and Sen. Nelson's address. :-)
    
    HTH,
    Kevin
    
    
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