By Corte H.B. No. 1300
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the provision of certain software to persons who access
1-3 the Internet; providing a civil penalty.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Chapter 35, Business & Commerce Code, is amended
1-6 by adding Subchapter I to read as follows:
1-7 SUBCHAPTER I. PROVISION OF SOFTWARE TO BLOCK OR SCREEN
1-8 INTERNET MATERIAL
1-9 Sec. 35.101. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:
1-10 (1) "Freeware" means software that is distributed to a
1-11 person free of charge regardless of whether use of the software is
1-12 subject to certain restrictions.
1-13 (2) "Internet" means the largest nonproprietary
1-14 nonprofit cooperative public computer network, popularly known as
1-15 the Internet.
1-16 (3) "Interactive computer service" means any
1-17 information service or system that provides or enables computer
1-18 access by multiple users to the Internet.
1-19 (4) "Shareware" means copyrighted software in which
1-20 the copyright owner sets certain conditions for its use and
1-21 distribution, including requiring payment to the copyright owner
1-22 after a person who has secured a copy of the software decides to
1-23 use the software, regardless of whether the payment is for
1-24 additional support or functionality for the software.
2-1 Sec. 35.102. SOFTWARE THAT RESTRICTS ACCESS TO CERTAIN
2-2 MATERIAL ON INTERNET. (a) A person who provides an interactive
2-3 computer service to another person for a fee shall provide free of
2-4 charge to each subscriber of the service in this state a link
2-5 leading to fully functional shareware, freeware, or demonstration
2-6 versions of software that, for at least one operating system,
2-7 enables the subscriber to automatically block or screen material on
2-8 the Internet.
2-9 (b) A provider is considered to be in compliance with this
2-10 section if the provider places, on the provider's first page of
2-11 world wide web text information accessible to a subscriber, a link
2-12 leading to the software described by Subsection (a). The identity
2-13 of the link or other on-screen depiction of the link must appear
2-14 set out from surrounding written or graphical material so as to be
2-15 conspicuous.
2-16 (c) This section does not apply to the General Services
2-17 Commission, in its capacity as the telecommunications provider for
2-18 the state, and an institution of higher education, as that term is
2-19 defined by Section 61.003, Education Code, that provides
2-20 interactive computer service.
2-21 (d) A person who provides a link that complies with this
2-22 section is not liable to a subscriber for any temporary
2-23 inoperability of the link or for the effectiveness of the software
2-24 that the person links to.
2-25 Sec. 35.103. CIVIL PENALTY. (a) A person who violates
2-26 Section 35.102 is liable to the state for a civil penalty not to
2-27 exceed $10,000 for each violation.
3-1 (b) The attorney general may institute a suit to recover the
3-2 civil penalty.
3-3 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, except
3-4 that a civil penalty for a violation of Section 35.102, Business &
3-5 Commerce Code, as added by this Act, may be imposed only for a
3-6 violation that occurs on or after January 1, 1998.
3-7 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.