Anti-Spyware Legislation on Track for This Year
According to a Washington Post article published yesterday, Congress may have anti-spyware legislation on the President’s desk before the November recess.
The proposed legislation would probably be a combination of two bills already approved separately by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. The Senate Commerce Committee has also recently passed its own version of an anti-spyware measure. Rather than making certain types of software illegal — a tactic understandably opposed by the tech industry — the final combined bill is likely to target specific behaviors commonly associated with spyware. One example would be installing a program on a computer without a user’s explicit permission.
Frankly, I think this is probably a last-minute attempt by legislators to score brownie points with an increasingly tech-savvy electorate prior to the November elections. Even so, I’ll be happy if it produces some good results.
