December 6, 2024

Hot Legislative Action

Declan McCullagh at news.com gives a rundown of the tech-regulation bills that are likely to be on the table in the new congressional session.

Many familiar bills will be back. At least one anticopying technology mandate like the Hollings CBDTPA is likely to be proposed. Changes in committee membership may make a CBDTPA-like bill more viable than it was before. (Fritz’s Hit List is warming up in the bullpen, ready to resume if necessary.) Congressional staffers also also predict a new and improved version of the Berman peer-to-peer hacking bill. And the pro-consumer and pro-fair use bills from Boucher, Lofgren, and others will be back too.

Declan predicts that anti-spam legislation will be a hot area, since the Direct Mail Association now backs anti-spam measures. This just increases the odds that Larry Lessig lose his bet and will be looking for work. (I’ll write more about Lessig’s bet in coming days.)