The Spy Act

Ed Foster really keeps on top of legal issues that affect consumers in the computer world. Here's a few snippets from a posting today on H.R. 964:

Last week a subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce
approved H.R. 964, the Spy Act, which bans some of the more blatant forms of
spyware such as those that hijack computer or log keystrokes. The bill now goes
to the full committee for approval, and it's expected to move quickly as it has
strong bipartisan support.
...
Let's sum up. If the Spy Act become law,
hardware, software, and network vendors will be granted carte blanche to use
spyware themselves to police their customers' use of their products and
services. Incredibly broad exceptions will probably allow even the worst of the
adware outfits to operate with legal cover. State attempts to deal with the
spyware problem will be pre-empted and enforcement left up almost entirely to
the FTC. Gee, what's not to like in that deal?