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Florida Expands Ban On Signal Theft
by Chloe Albanesius
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday signed into law a bill that expands the law against the theft of cable television signals to cover new technologies.
The measure, S.B. 1078, is based on a model law drafted, and being pushed in the states, by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Many observers have dubbed such legislation "super DMCA," a reference to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, because it would add another layer to laws against copyright infringement or contributory copyright infringement.
Interest groups objected to provisions in the Florida measure that they said could subject state residents to lawsuits for using legal equipment. "This is not a good time to be a cable consumer in Florida," said Michael Petricone, vice president for technology policy at the Consumer Electronics Association. He added that the law is "broadly and vaguely written."
"The danger is that cable consumers in Florida [who] are using products legally in the privacy of their homes could find themselves [subject to] civil or criminal charges," Petricone said. "I just hope the content industry will be responsible in their litigation."
Vans Stevenson, MPAA's senior vice president of state legislative affairs, said the new law only targets those who use equipment to steal access to signals they have not purchased. "If it's a device that has the capability [to steal] but is not used, it's perfectly legal," he said. The law "expands the definitions [of theft] to include new types of service on the Internet and via satellite, and it's a natural extension of cable-theft law."
Stevenson said the characterization of the Florida law as a "super DMCA" is "so false and misleading that it's preposterous." The interest groups "know we cannot pass our own copyright laws at the state level," he said.
Petricone, however, said the measure is "bad for consumers, bad for technology companies and bad for innovation." He credits the enactment of the law to the amount of resources MPAA has committed to the issue, as well as the significant presence of content companies in Florida. "It was sold as a non-controversial update," he said. "Legislators did not know of the massive potential impact on consumers' lawful practices."
Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan and Virginia have enacted similar statutes.
New California Privacy Law Sparks Interest
Privacy groups are taking interest in a new California law that, come July 1, will require companies, nonprofit groups and state agencies to notify customers if their personal information has been unlawfully accessed.
"If a company has to notify their California customers ... we feel that this will give consumers at least the ability to proactively take the necessary steps to find help" for privacy violations, said Jordana Beebe, communications director for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
Lawmakers passed the measure, S.B. 1386, last summer after information on government employees at the state's Teale Data Center was exposed.
Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the bill could correct some security problems. "When [companies] don't report [breaches of security], then that leads to a false sense of security, complacency about how much activity is going on, how many attacks there are, how many breaches there are," he said. "When you don't hear about it from the companies, you may not think it's that serious."
Tien also praised statutory language that exempts companies that exempts from the law companies that encrypt customer information.
Dan Burton, vice president of government affairs for the Texas-based security company Entrust, said encryption is the "only safe harbor." His company focuses on secure data transmission, and he said that many companies outside the state will be affected by the act because "almost every company has [customer information] flowing through a server in California."
Jerry Berman, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said that while notification is a step in the right direction, more needs to be done to secure networks from breaches. He hopes the legislation will "drive the technology community even harder to come up with best practices that they're prepared to work together on and develop. The notice itself doesn't set up a coordinated or overarching set of rules."
Jon Kamp, a lawyer with Wiley, Rein & Fielding specializing in Internet, privacy and marketing, said some of the responsibility lies with consumers. "Consumers particularly have to do better about installing and using their security systems ... [but] in these days of ... using information for identity theft, I think notification is a good thing," he said.
Toward A More Complete DNA Database
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper on Wednesday called for his state to join the 28 states that currently require all convicted felons to be listed in DNA databases. The State Bureau of Investigation currently has DNA profiles of convicted felons on file but is only required to take samples from a limited number of violent criminals.
Cooper pointed to Virginia's database of 168,000 and its 2001 success rate of 48 percent in "cold case" searches. North Carolina currently has 40,000 samples on file and had a 20 percent success rate that same year.
"Investigators' ability to get a match in a case with no suspect is only as good as our state's database of known criminals," Cooper said in a statement. "North Carolina can stop repeat offenders and exonerate the innocent by taking DNA samples from all felons."
In other news, Cooper this week also slammed a proposal to exempt newspapers, cable companies, and radio and television stations from "do not call" legislation for telemarketing. "People are sick of telemarketers invading their privacy," he said. "The more loopholes [lawmakers] create, the more the phone will keep ringing."
Texas Nabs Another Alleged Online Predator
Texas officials on Tuesday arrested their second suspect in two weeks accused of luring a "child" to a San Marcos location via chat rooms.
Victor Gage engaged in five days of illicit conversations with a girl who he thought was 13 but who actually was an investigator with the Texas Internet Bureau. Gage set up a meeting with the "girl," only to be arrested by bureau officials upon arrival. His bond was set at $100,000.
Officers arrested another man for the same offense on June 13.
Michigan, Missouri Receive 'First Responder' Funds
Michigan last week was awarded about $42 million in federal aid for "first responders" to emergencies. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge made the announcement at Selfridge Air National Guard Base that the funds could be used for equipment, training, planning and exercises for first responders. The money also could be put toward recouping the cost of upping security in the wake of military action in Iraq.
In related news, Missouri fire department officials have been awarded $200,000 via a federal grant. "These funds will help the men and women who put their lives on the line ... to protect the citizens they so admirably serve," Sen. Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo., said in a press release. "It became even more clear after [the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks] that our first responders must have the resources they need to do their jobs safely."
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