H.B. 406 78(R) BILL ANALYSIS H.B. 406 By: Miller Law Enforcement Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, a person accused or convicted of a crime is prohibited from selling his or her account of the crime through a movie, book, magazine article, recording, radio interview, or television interview. However, current law does not prohibit a person accused or convicted of a crime from profiting from their account of the crime through a web site or telephone service such as a 1-900 number. House Bill 406 prohibits criminals from profiting by selling accounts of the crime through telephone services and electronic media. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 406 amends Subdivision (7), Article 59.01 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to redefine "proceeds" by adding telephone service and an electronic media format including an Internet website to the list of formats from which proceeds are derived. EFFECTIVE DATE This Act takes effect September 1, 2003.