Some good news from Washington for a change.
The bill, called the Internet Spyware Prevention Act, or I-Spy for short, punishes anyone who intentionally causes software “to be copied onto” a computer–and damages it or steals personal information–with fines and up to five years in prison.
Tuesday’s voice vote is a political win for the technology industry and its allies, Reps. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, and Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, who had supported the I-Spy Act over a competing proposal that would have imposed a complex new set of regulations on software makers.
Lofgren, who represents the portion of Silicon Valley around San Jose, said during the floor debate that she was delighted that the bill the House approved “both protects consumers on the Internet and fosters technological innovation.”
[tags]Antispyware, Spyware, Internet Spyware Prevention Act[/tags]
