Internet Spyware (I-Spy) Prevention Act of 2004
INTERNET SPYWARE (I-SPY) PREVENTION ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - October 06, 2004)
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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to have partnered with my colleague from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) on this legislation to combat spyware. Spyware is quickly becoming one of the biggest threats to consumers on the Internet. It is one of the reasons why we have an identity theft epidemic. Thieves are using spyware to harvest personal information from unsuspecting Americans. Criminals are even using spyware to track every keystroke an individual makes, including credit card and Social Security numbers.
Spyware also adversely affects the business community which must spend money to block and remove it from their systems. Microsoft has stated that spyware is "at least partially responsible for approximately one-half of all application crashes" reported to them. Experts estimate that as many as 80 to 90 percent of all personal computers contain some form of spyware. Earthlink recently identified more than 29 million spyware programs. In short, spyware is a very real problem that is endangering consumers, damaging businesses, and creating millions of dollars of additional costs.
I am proud to support H.R. 4661, this bipartisan measure that identifies the truly unscrupulous acts associated with spyware and subjects them to criminal punishment. This bill is important because it focuses on behavior, not on technology. It targets the worst form of spyware without unduly burdening technological innovation.
H.R. 4661 also authorizes for the Attorney General the money he needs to find and prosecute spyware offenders. At the same time, it is important to note that this bill does not prevent existing or future State laws that prohibit spyware. Report language clearly explains that this bill only preempts civil actions that are based on violations of this new Federal criminal law. It does not prevent a State from passing a similar law, nor does it prevent any lawsuits that are premised on existing State laws.
I am honored that this bill has the strong support of some of the biggest names in technology, including Microsoft and Dell. It is also supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Center For Democracy and Technology, and even the Distributed Computing Industry Association, which represents peer-to-peer networks. Consumers and businesses cannot wait any longer for help.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4661.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I would like to thank as well the gentleman from Virginia for such a productive collaboration on this bill. I think it is a good product and one that we can all be very satisfied with. I also want to take a moment to thank two members of my staff. The staff does not generally get thanked in public. Andrew Kugler, a lawyer on my staff and a brand new father, worked very hard with the gentleman from Virginia's staff to make sure that all these issues were dealt with successfully; and while he was on paternity leave, Ur Jaddou on my staff filled in for him. So thanks to both of those fine lawyers for the effort that they made. The staff works behind the scenes, but they help us accomplish a lot, and we need to thank them.
I also wanted to mention and agree with the gentleman from Virginia in terms of the phishing issue. I will admit that one of the brightest people I know, my daughter, was caught up actually in a phishing scheme. Very smart people can get taken by these phishing schemes. As soon as her thumb hit the send button, she thought, oh, my goodness, what have I done. We had to call and cancel all the credit cards and the like.
This is something that preys upon people. If you think about the impact of phishing and also spyware, it is not just an inconvenience to consumers; but if we do not successfully abate this, we are going to have a very serious impact on the vitality of the Internet itself, because if people cannot trust Internet commerce, they will not use Internet commerce and so that is going to have an impact on the productivity of the American economy.
What we are doing here today is important for consumers, it is important for businesses, but it is also important for the future of our high-tech economy because we have got to make sure that the Internet is safe for commerce and for individual users and also for businesses.
I urge and I do believe that this House will in large number support the bill. When you do, you are striking a blow for the continued vitality of the Internet as an instrument of commerce and economic growth for America.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.