Doing my part to push certain abuses of CSS off the recentlog...

UCITA continues to creep across the land (of the US) like a slow-moving plague. Which, in a way, is good. At least it isn't a fast-moving airborne virus like the mega-corporation lobby would like it to be.

There is hope for my state, at least. Recently a public hearing was held in Salem regarding House Bill 3910, also known as UCITA for Oregon. I regret I wasn't able to attend, however several members of my LUG did go, and one posted an encouraging report of the proceedings. My favorite parts of the hearing: The state representative pushing UCITA didn't show up. The only supporters that showed up were Intel goons. Boeing sent their MIS manager out to speak against it.

Why did UCITA even get this far in Oregon? Well, that's simple. The Legal Infrastructure Subcommittee of the Oregon Internet Commission was comprised of two IP lawyers, the Attorney General, and a Microsoft VP. Oh, and there's an Intel VP on the Commission, too.

But I'm not annoyed or anything. Nah. On the up side, the Legal Infrastructure subcommittee didn't outright recommend UCITA, they said it needed further study, due to its controversial standing in many states. The funny thing is, Oregon isn't looking to adopt UCITA because they think it's a great set of commerce laws. They want to adopt it as a means of attracting more Internet businesses to the state, on the grounds that Oregon is progressive and on the leading edge of supporting Internet business.

So, for the first time in awhile, I'm optimistic about the saftey of Oregon from UCITA.