1-1     By:  Corte (Senate Sponsor - Ogden)                   H.B. No. 1300

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 9, 1997;

 1-3     April 10, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-4     International Relations, Trade, and Technology; April 17, 1997,

 1-5     reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 8, Nays 0;

 1-6     April 17, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-7                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-8                                   AN ACT

 1-9     relating to the provision of certain software to persons who access

1-10     the Internet; providing a civil penalty.

1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-12           SECTION 1.  Chapter 35, Business & Commerce Code, is amended

1-13     by adding Subchapter I to read as follows:

1-14           SUBCHAPTER I.  PROVISION OF SOFTWARE TO BLOCK OR SCREEN

1-15                              INTERNET MATERIAL

1-16           Sec. 35.101.  DEFINITIONS.  In this subchapter:

1-17                 (1)  "Freeware" means software that is distributed to a

1-18     person free of charge regardless of whether use of the software is

1-19     subject to certain restrictions.

1-20                 (2)  "Internet" means the largest nonproprietary

1-21     nonprofit cooperative public computer network, popularly known as

1-22     the Internet.

1-23                 (3)  "Interactive computer service" means any

1-24     information service or system that provides or enables computer

1-25     access by multiple users to the Internet.

1-26                 (4)  "Shareware" means copyrighted software in which

1-27     the copyright owner sets certain conditions for its use and

1-28     distribution, including requiring payment to the copyright owner

1-29     after a person who has secured a copy of the software decides to

1-30     use the software, regardless of whether the payment is for

1-31     additional support or functionality for the software.

1-32           Sec. 35.102.  SOFTWARE THAT RESTRICTS ACCESS TO CERTAIN

1-33     MATERIAL ON INTERNET.  (a)  A person who provides an interactive

1-34     computer service to another person for a fee shall provide free of

1-35     charge to each subscriber of the service in this state a link

1-36     leading to fully functional shareware, freeware, or demonstration

1-37     versions of software that, for at least one operating system,

1-38     enables the subscriber to automatically block or screen material on

1-39     the Internet.

1-40           (b)  A provider is considered to be in compliance with this

1-41     section if the provider places, on the provider's first page of

1-42     world wide web text information accessible to a subscriber, a link

1-43     leading to the software described by Subsection (a).  The identity

1-44     of the link or other on-screen depiction of the link must appear

1-45     set out from surrounding written or graphical material so as to be

1-46     conspicuous.

1-47           (c)  This section does not apply to the General Services

1-48     Commission, in its capacity as the telecommunications provider for

1-49     the state, and an institution of higher education, as that term is

1-50     defined by Section 61.003, Education Code, that provides

1-51     interactive computer service.

1-52           (d)  A person who provides a link that complies with this

1-53     section is not liable to a subscriber for any temporary

1-54     inoperability of the link or for the effectiveness of the software

1-55     that the person links to.

1-56           Sec. 35.103.  CIVIL PENALTY.  (a)  A person who violates

1-57     Section 35.102 is liable to the state for a civil penalty not to

1-58     exceed $10,000 for each violation.

1-59           (b)  The attorney general may institute a suit to recover the

1-60     civil penalty.

1-61           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, except

1-62     that a civil penalty for a violation of Section 35.102, Business &

1-63     Commerce Code, as added by this Act, may be imposed only for a

1-64     violation that occurs on or after January 1, 1998.

 2-1           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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