ANNOUNCEMENT: Markey Bill (HR3636) Available Online from EFF

[Stanton McCandlish <mech@eff.org>]

	HR3636, The Markey Bill, is now available online at the Electronic
Frontier Foundation's ftp archive.  FTP to ftp.eff.org, and get the
text file ~pub/eff/legislation/hr3636 (aka ~pub/eff/legislation/markey.bil).

 ****** Info on the bill ******        

	On Monday, November 22, 1993, EFF applauded House
Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey
(D-Mass.), Minority Chairman Jack Fields (R-Tex.), and other cosponsors for
introducing the "National Communications Competition and Information
Infrastructure Act of 1993."  The Markey/Fields legislation, which
incorporates EFF's Open Platform philosophy, is built on three concepts:
open platform services, the entry of telephone companies into video cable
service, and universal service.

        Reacting to the open platform provisions, Mitchell Kapor, EFF Board
Chairman, stated:  "The sponsors of this bill are to be commended for
proposing legislation that incorporates a truly democratic vision of the
emerging data highway.  Open platform service can end channel scarcity once
and for all and make it possible for any information provider to offer
voice, data, and video services on the data highway.  Every citizen will be
able to access a true diversity of information and programming."

        EFF Executive Director Jerry Berman added that "we believe public
interest and nonprofit groups, as well as computer and communications
industry leaders will work very hard for the open platform provisions.  Our
goal is to keep them in the bill and make them even stronger before its
enactment."

AN EFF ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF THE BILL ON PUBLIC INTEREST GOALS OF
UNIVERSAL SERVICE, COMMON CARRIAGE, AND CONSUMER EQUITY WILL BE RELEASED AS
SOON AS IT IS COMPLETED.

For an initial brief analysis (previously posted to comp.org.eff.talk and
elsewhere) see ftp.eff.org, ~pub/eff/legislation/announce.mky

See also ftp.eff.org or gopher.eff.org, ~pub/eff/papers/op2.0 and
~pub/eff/papers/open-platform* for more information on EFF's Open Platform
initiative.  See ~pub/eff/legislation/markey.bil for the full text of the
Markey Bill.