May 2, 2003

Digital Freedom Update: Legislator Responds

A reader of this blog has forwarded the text of a letter he received by email from state Rep. Rob Briley, a key sponsor of legislation pending in the Tennessee General Assembly that would abridge many of your digital freedoms. He received the email from Briley after writing Briley to urge him to pull HB 457. Here is what Briley wrote:

There has been much misinformation spread about this bill, my intent in sponsoring it (contrary to popular belief, I have never been contacted by anyone from the Motion Picture Association of America regarding this legislation, ever), what it accomplishes, and what it prohibits.

I introduced this legislation because of a real problem regarding theft of voice, video, and data communications. The value of that theft last year is estimated to be between $100-130 million. I know that none of the interested parties, including yourself, would condone that behavior as that cost is passed on to legitimate purchasers of these communications services. Once the bill was introduced, parties from all sides began meeting to work out an amendment to clarify that to violate the provisions of this proposed law, one must have the intent to defraud or steal something that would otherwise have to be purchased. These parties have included consumer electronic manufacturers, computer software designers, computer network professionals, and librarians. It does not at all relate to copyrighted material, as those issues are pre-empted by federal law.

The amendment also makes it abundantly clear that legislation would not make illegal legitimate computer designs or applications relating to networks and firewalls, nor the encrypting of data associated with those applications. I am continuing to work on the amendment to address any specific concerns. However, the vast majority of those who have contacted me have not seen and/or read the amendment to the bill. To help people understand what the legislation will look like as amended, I have scheduled a meeting in my office, 17 Legislative Plaza, on Tuesday, May, 6, at 10:00am. Please feel free to attend this meeting. I look forward to working with you to develop a piece of legislation that accomplishes my intent without compromising your legitimate activities.

Briley's claim that he has not dealt with the MPAA on this is simply not credible. His initial legislation is, in many sections, verbatim the MPAA draft legislation. Another question: why did Briley introduce such flawed legislation and begin to move it through the legislative process before amending it to fix many of the problems he admits plagued the initial bill?

And, third, Briley says the bill has been amended. But a check of the the status of HB 457, and its companion in the state senate, SB 213, finds that, as of today, no amendments have been filed for either bill.

Also today, Nashville City Paper has a better-than-average story about the legislation and the controversy surrounding it.

UPDATE: A reader of the City Paper story, Stephen Critchfield, posted a very perceptive comment on the paper's website: "...this law will make owning a VCR illegal as soon as the FCC mandates a copyright bit be placed in the HDTV video stream. The cable company rep says this law is not about copyright violations, and I'll agree with him. It is however about controlling what can be connected to the network that is capable of excersising our "Fair Use" rights. As soon as the copyright bit is part of the HDTV standard, anything that ignores it will become illegal in Tennessee because of this bill."

Because we haven't yet seen the alleged amendments Rep. Briley says have been made to the bill, we don't know if this flaw has been addressed.

For more on this issue, go here, and follow the links.