Re: co-sponsors S.974

[lmccarth@cs.umass.edu (L. McCarthy)]

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Shari Steele writes, re: S.974, the Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act 
[via gnu, on the cypherpunks list]:
# Fortunately, the bill does not have a very promising
# future.  The bill has  no co-sponsors.  

James R. Coleman (or John Noble ?  screwed up attributions) writes
[via jya, on cyberia-l]:
> The bill was co-sponsored by Sens. Kyl (R-AZ) and Leahy
> (D-VT). It has the enthousiastic support of the
> administration. In a DOJ press release  following its
> introduction, AG Reno is quoted as saying "computer crime
> is fast becoming everyone's problem. I'm encouraged that
> this bill is off to a  bipartisan start, and I hope
> Congress will move quickly to enact it." 

I think I can settle the confusion about who's sponsoring what in the Senate. 

The bill described by Coleman ? Noble ?
on cyberia-l appears to be S.982, the National Information Infrastructure 
Protection Act of 1995. According to Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov), this bill
was introduced in the Senate on June 29th (not 27th), and is cosponsored by,
you guessed it, Sens. Kyl, Leahy, & Grassley. It mainly consists of a
section entitled "Computer Crime", which sets penalties for breaking into
systems, "damaging" data, systems, etc., ad nauseum.

(This is why they give bills *numbers*, folks :)

Here's an excerpt from Sen Leahy's introductory remarks for S.982 in the
Congressional Record: 
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[...]
This bill will increase protection
for both government and private computers, and the information
on those computers, from the growing threat of computer crime.

We increasingly depend on the availability, integrity, and
confidentiality of computer systems and information to conduct our
business, communicate with our friends and families, and even to
be entertained.
[...]
Second, the bill would increase protection for the privacy and
confidentiality of computer information. Recently, computer hackers
have accessed sensitive data regarding Operation Desert

Storm, penetrated NASA computers, and broken into Federal
courthouse computer systems containing confidential records. Others
have abused their privileges on Government computers by snooping
through confidential tax returns, or selling confidential criminal
history information from the National Crime Information Center.

The bill would criminalize these activities by making all those who
misuse computers to obtain Government information and, where
appropriate, information held by the private sector, subject to
prosecution.
[...]
 --- end excerpts ---

I seem to recall reading that non-subscribers can't post to cyberia-l. Feel
free to forward this there, if a similar correction hasn't already 
appeared. 

 -L. Futplex McCarthy <lmccarth@cs.umass.edu>	PGP key by finger or server

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