Intellectual Property Law

Rebublican Senators: It's About Immunity

By Hugh DAndrade

The dangerous and unconstitutional FISA bill coming up before the House Friday appears to have support, with Speaker Pelosi describing it as a "balanced bill".

The bill is far from balanced when it comes to immunity for telecoms, as the bill was written to guarantee dismissal -- a fact the Speaker's Republican colleagues are quite up front about:

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., said the only result that could occur from a court review of the lawsuits against the companies would be that plaintiffs would be prevented from pursuing the cases. ... "The lawsuits will be dismissed, and we feel comfortable that the standard of evidence that the law requires will be easily met," Blunt said.

In addition to targeting EFF's lawsuit, these two Missouri legislators would also be throwing the State of Missouri out of court. The Missouri Public Utilities Commission was seeking information to determine if the telecoms violated the privacy of Missouri customers. It appears that protecting the pocketbooks of telecom companies was more important to Blunt and Bond than the privacy of their constituents.

The House is set to vote on the bill on Friday -- take action now!

Full post as published by Electronic Freedom Foundation - Deep Links on June 19, 2008 (boomark / email).