Pay Attention to State Legislation
Information Today, Vol. 20, No. 6, p. 17, June 2003
3 Pages Posted: 15 Jul 2010
Date Written: June 1, 2003
Abstract
Most of the Legal Issues columns that I have written over the last couple of years have dealt with issues of federal law. In general, issues that most often impact the information community arise out of the actions of Congress or the federal courts. These bodies have the lion’s share of jurisdiction over copyright and intellectual property, antitrust, national and international commerce, ADA and discrimination, and First Amendment issues such as Internet filtering, the USA PATRIOT Act and Freedom of Speech.
As such, actions in the legislatures of the 50 states often are ignored by many information producers and consumers. Because our attention is focused on Congress and the federal courts, state actions with the potential to significantly impact information industry practices can fly under the radar screen, perhaps until it is too late. As the 2003 legislative season heats up, three important proposals are making the rounds of the state legislatures and merit immediate attention.
Keywords: copyright law, lawsuits, state legislation, electronic information, fair use, first sale, information industry, electronic commerce, digital information, licensing, UCITA, Uniform Computer Information Transactions, Electronic Government Services Act, Model Communications Security Legislation, Super
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