[Fwd: EFFector 17.9: California Bills Backed by Hollywood Attack Internet Privacy]

["Olga Francois" <ofrancois@xxxxxxxx>]

FYI...

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: EFFector 17.9: California Bills Backed by Hollywood Attack
Internet Privacy
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 15:23:53 -0800 (PST)
From: Effector List <alerts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: ofrancois@xxxxxxxx

EFFector    Vol. 17, No. 9    March 17, 2004          donna@xxxxxxx

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation  ISSN 1062-9424
In the 281st Issue of EFFector:

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* California Bills Backed by Hollywood Attack Internet Privacy 

EFF Opposes Ineffective, Damaging Legislation

San Francisco, CA - EFF today asked Californians to contact their 
legislative representatives in opposition to a pair of misguided 
anti-piracy bills that dramatically impact Internet users' 
rights to privacy and anonymity.  California Assembly Bill 2735 
and Senate Bill 1506 would require anyone who knowingly 
disseminates commercial recorded or audiovisual material over 
the Internet to mark it with his or her name and address or face 
a possible one-year prison sentence.

"These California anti-anonymity bills would force everyone - 
including children - to put their real names and addresses on 
all the files they trade, regardless of whether the files 
actually infringe copyrights," said EFF Legal Director Cindy 
Cohn.  "Because the bills require Internet users to post 
personally identifying information, they fly directly in the 
face of policy goals and laws that prevent identity theft 
and spam as well as protect children and domestic violence 
victims."

For example, the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection 
Act of 1998 (COPPA) forbids collection of personally identifiable 
information from children online without parental consent.  

"This bill creates criminal liability for sharing a single song, 
or even a portion of a song or movie, but leaves no space for 
fair uses such as commentary, criticism, parody or educational 
uses of works," said EFF Activist Ren Bucholz.  "This bill is 
supposed to stop piracy, but it may be the most ineffective 
and harmful method yet proposed."

For the full media release:
<http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/20040316_eff_pr.php>
 
EFF action alert on anti-anonymity bills:
<http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2878>

The bills:
CA A.B. 2735:
<http://www.eff.org/cgi/tiny?urlID=152>
CA S.B. 1506: 
<http://www.eff.org/cgi/tiny?urlID=153>