March 26, 2004

Digital Freedom Campaign

The fine folks over at the Tennessee Digital Freedom Network are planning an email-athon targeting the members of the Tennessee legislature's House Judiciary Committee, urging them to vote against House Bill 3391, an absolutely atrocious piece of legislation that is bad for Tennessee residents and bad for Tennessee business. You can read more about the email campaign - including a well-written letter that explains why HB3391 is so bad, here. Here are a few portions of the letter:

In their current form, these bills have several serious technical and constitutional flaws and could result in severe unintended consequences for the state of Tennessee. While they purport to only update Tennessee laws prohibiting theft of communications services, they in fact create a state-wide pseudo-copyright system, blurring the line between communication signals and copyright content. These bills originated from a bill drafted by the Motion Picture Association of America and sponsored by Senator Curtis Person and Representative Rob Briley. Though the bill has been modified throughout the legislative process, it unfortunately retains its focus on extending statewide copyright protection to communications content.

The bills are also unnecessarily restrictive on interstate commerce, subjecting manufacturers and retailers to potential civil and criminal liability for the sale of legal devices if a communication service provider alleges that they had the improper “intent” in doing so. On this basis, the Consumer Electronics Association, Consumer Electronics Retailers Association, as well as their members Radio Shack and Phillips Electronics, have come to Tennessee to oppose passage of this legislation. Unfortunately, potential defendants are under strong pressure to settle civil lawsuits because the proposed statutes would allow a civil litigant to seek statutory damages of $50,000.00 per device for each violation, although the device in question may be legally protected under federal copyright law. Retailers may also be charged in the state of Tennessee with a Class D misdemeanor for the sale of legal and federally protected devices. The effect this bill will have on the Tennessee economy is unforeseeable, but it will clearly send a signal to the business community that Tennessee is not friendly to technology and not friendly to innovation. This signal will hinder the ability of the state to attract new jobs and opportunities to the state, all to protect an industry which is already protected by federal copyright laws.

If you care about protecting your digital freedoms, remember to participate in the email campaign this coming Wednesday, March 31, from noon to five p.m. Tomorrow, I'll also post the House Judiciary Committee members' other contact info (phone, fax, mail) if you wish to contact them that way.