On 06/14/2016 12:56 PM, Stephen LaPorte wrote:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/06/california-legislature-drops-proposal…
EFF warned the bill’s authors about these problems in early
May. Soon after, numerous other organizations joined in opposition
from library groups to open government advocates to newspapers,
Internet companies, and the California Chamber of Commerce. And
more than 360 Californians wrote to their state legislators through
EFF’s Action Center to sound the alarm.
Those efforts have paid off. This week, the bill was amended to
remove the new intellecutual property powers and the new exemptions
to CPRA. What remains are provisions for better tracking of state
patents, trademarks, and copyrights, and a new requirement that
state agencies “consider” the intellectual property rights of
all parties when they write contracts. These changes should help
avoid situations like the ongoing trademark dispute over hotels and
campgrounds in Yosemite National Park, without harming public access
to government records and data.
Based on the new amendments, EFF is dropping its opposition to
A.B. 2880. Thank you to everyone who weighed in on this issue for
sending a strong message that the abuse of intellectual property
laws can harm many different sectors of society, and that preventing
those abuses needs to be a top priority for our lawmakers. Thanks
also to Assemblymember Mark Stone for listening and responding to
Californians’ concerns with this bill.
Well done!
Mike