[NTLUG:Discuss] Urgent alert: Come testify against the Super DMCA! Seante hearing 1PM may 6.

[Paul Elliott]

Subject: Urgent Alert: SB1116  HB2121 AKA "Super DMCA" bill has passed out of Senate Committee

-----------[Please redistribute as widely as appropriate]-----------
Urgent Alert on the "Super DMCA" communication service anti-circumvention
bill in Texas (Senate Bill 1116 & House Bill 2121) has passed out of
Senate Committee

 From EFF-Austin <http://www.effaustin.org>

May 9, 2003	                       Expires:June 1 2003

=== Summary ===

Texas Senate Bill 1116 (SB1116)
and companion Texas House Bill 2121 (HB2121)

This bill creates new criminal penalties for obtaining a communication
service (such as internet service or cable/satellite/phone/multichannel
services) with "intent to defraud" the provider of the service. The
penalties extend to connecting, modifying, possessing, or sharing
instructions for the use of any "access device" in a manner unauthorized
by the provider. The Bill has passed out of the Senate Criminal Justice
committee.

The bill is BAD because:

* The bill's broad language makes it a crime to modify your
internet-connected computer in any way that your service provider does
not approve of. It is so broad that it could apply to many electronic
communications practices, software, and devices commonly used in homes
and for sale at stores.

* In particular, this bill could expose you to criminal and civil penalties
if you connect LINUX (or any particular OS) to your cable internet connection
without permission from your cable provider.

* Likewise, this bill could expose you to criminal and civil penalties
if you connect any device (such as a router or firewall) to your cable
internet connection without permission from your cable provider.

* The bill would promote anti-competitive practices by large
communication services, such as tying proprietary products to
communications services.  It would, in effect, return us to the day when
everyone had to rent telephones from the telephone company.

* The bill would interfere with legitimate academic and commercial
research and innovation, by prohibiting the development and distribution
of plans for "unauthorized access devices."
* The bill has excessive civil and criminal penalties that take the law
into private hands and that are far out of proportion to the offenses.
The bill would open the door for a barrage of litigation by industry
against individuals and between competitors. This litigation would be
complicated by areas of overlap and contradiction with federal laws.
* Similar broad laws are already interfering with legitimate business
and research activities in this country.

The wording of this legislation appears to be custom-drafted by the
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and is similar to the
already-problematic Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Even with
amendments in the committee substitute, it is still unacceptable.
Similar bills have been introduced in other states (Arkansas, Florida,
Georgia, Massachusetts, and Tennessee) or have already passed
(Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania and
Wyoming). Because the bills are more extreme versions of the DMCA,
pundits refer to them as "super-DMCA" legislation.

Texas Senate Bill 1116 (SB1116)
	Sponsored by: Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands/Beaumont)
	Committee: Criminal Justice Committee
	Hearing: Scheduled for May 6. Substitute passed out of committee.

Texas House Bill 2121 (HB2121)
	Companion (identical) bill
	Submitted by: Ron Wilson (D-Houston, not on Committee below)
	Committee: Regulated Industries
	Hearing: 4/23/2003; EFF-Austin testified.
	         still pending.

For more information, contact:	<sb1116-info at effaustin.org>
or visit:  <http://wiki.effaustin.org/index.php/SB1116>


=== TAKE ACTION NOW! ===

1) Take a few minutes to participate in democracy.
Fax, write, or visit members of the Texas Legislature to express your
opposition to SB1116 & HB2121. 

It is important to contact:
1) Your own Senator and Representative
2) Members of the Regulated Industries Committee in House.
3) Senators not on Criminal Justice Committee
4) if you have the time, all State Senators and Representatives.

- For committee member's contact info, see
<http://wiki.effaustin.org/index.php/Senate%20committee%20contact%20info>
and
<http://wiki.effaustin.org/index.php/House%20committee%20contact%20info>	-
Mimic a sample letter at
	<http://wiki.effaustin.org/index.php/sample%20letter>
- Send a letter using the national EFF's Action Center:
	<http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2629>
- Use an "e-democracy" website such as:
	<http://www.eactivist.org/>

Here is one possible sample letter you could mimic:
=================================================
(Address)


(today's date)


Honorable (Senator/Representative NAME),

I am writing to ask you to OPPOSE Senate Bill 1116 / House Bill
2121. The bill is a technology control bill that gives "service
providers" tremendous power to control how business and consumers use
their Internet connection. It allows service providers to dictate what
brand of hardware and software customers use with an Internet
connection, and lets service providers use the legal system to
prosecute customers who use unapproved brands of products. This is
like letting the electric company dictate what brand of blender and
toaster you use. It's anti-customer and anti-competitive.


In particular, I am opposed to this bill because 

(OPTION 1)
I have LINUX connected to my cable internet connection.
(OPTION 2)
I have a firewall/router connected to my cable internet connection
which I use to connect more than 1 computer at my house to my cable
internet connection.

The bill exposes me to criminal and civil penalties if I do this
without permission from the cable company.

The amendments in the committee substitute do not address this
concern.

HB 2121 and SB 1116 are unnecessary, overbroad and harmful to the
public interest. As a (Texas businessperson / public servant / citizen
/ internet consumer), I urge you to protect Texans and oppose this
legislation.


Sincerely,


(Your signature)


(your name)


(your title, organization)


(address)
=================================================
write in your own words or write your own letter.


2) Stay in touch.
Join our "SB1116" mailing list to keep up with the latest on all
versions of SB1116/HB2121 (see below). This legislative session is going
fast, and supporters of this bill are trying to slip it through quickly.
We have only a short time to act when these bills move to another stage.
Bills can come up for hearing with little public notice.

3) Study up, spread the word.
EFF-Austin has in-depth information on SB1116/HB2121 at
<http://wiki.effaustin.org/index.php/SB1116>
Info on the national super-DMCA phenomenon is at
<http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/states/>
Please redistribute this message to all interested parties and
mailing lists. Please inform all interested groups. Write letters
to the editor of your newspaper.


* Don't wait 'til they come after your network! *


=== Join our Mailing List ===

Please join our "sb1116" mailing list to keep up-to-date with the latest
news on SB1116/HB2121, and to meet with others who are working on this
issue.

The list is available in two forms.  To subscribe and receive
individual messages as they are submitted, send a blank email
to <sb1116-subscribe at effaustin.org>.  To subscribe and receive
periodic digest compilations of messages, send a blank email
to <sb1116-digest-subscribe at effaustin.org>.

For more information, contact:	<sb1116-info at effaustin.org>
or visit:  <http://wiki.effaustin.org/index.php/SB1116>
-------------

The above list is in addition to the general EFF-Austin mailing
lists. For general info on EFF-Austin, please visit our website at
<http://eff-austin.org/>.

			 ###

~ Ms.G
(at)NoitaucdE[dot]com
on behalf of EFF-Austin (Texas)
pelliott at io.com