Browsing around waiting for something exiting to happen I came across an article on slashdot regarding a bill which was passed by the House Judiciary committee H.R.3261.

Maybe im missing something, but what’s wrong with this bill?

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.3261:

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(a) LIABILITY- Any person who makes available in commerce to others a quantitatively substantial part of the information in a database generated, gathered, or maintained by another person, knowing that such making available in commerce is without the authorization of that person (including a successor in interest) or that person's licensee, when acting within the scope of its license, shall be liable for the remedies set forth in section 7 if--

(1) the database was generated, gathered, or maintained through a substantial expenditure of financial resources or time;

(2) the unauthorized making available in commerce occurs in a time sensitive manner and inflicts injury on the database or a product or service offering access to multiple databases; and

(3) the ability of other parties to free ride on the efforts of the plaintiff would so reduce the incentive to produce the product or service that its existence or quality would be substantially threatened.

(b) INJURY- For purposes of subsection (a), the term `inflicts an injury' means serving as a functional equivalent in the same market as the database in a manner that causes the displacement, or the disruption of the sources, of sales, licenses, advertising, or other revenue.

(c) TIME SENSITIVE- In determining whether an unauthorized making available in commerce occurs in a time sensitive manner, the court shall consider the temporal value of the information in the database, within the context of the industry sector involved.

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One would think these things were already protected by law but it seems that if someone has their data stolen they must sue for damages. This makes it a crime punishable by law,

yahoo, att, google and a bunch if others are lobbying against it. Their saying this overturns a previous ruling stating that facts can not be copywritten.

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5145040.html

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news...le.php/3302931


Whats up with that?

Oh! BTW this protection does not extend to .gov databases