Louis Trager at the Washington Internet Daily reports that the Texas Super-DMCA bill appears to be dead, as this year’s legislative session ended without any action on the bill. There is still a small risk that it will be considered in special session, but the governor’s office says he does not intend to call such a special session. The Texas legislature is not scheduled to meet at all in 2004, so the bill appears to be dead there until at least 2005.
The is another significant victory for Super-DMCA opponents, along with the veto of the Colorado bill, and the withdrawal of the Tennessee and Oregon bills by their sponsors.
Trager quotes MPAA Vice President Vans Stevenson as saying that “Time is on our side. We have all the time in the world.”
Apparently MPAA will be patient, in the hope that opponents will tire of the struggle, or maybe in the hope of finding new opportunities to introduce stealth bills. That may be MPAA’s best hope, since the bills have fared poorly wherever open debate on their merits has been allowed.
