The Texas version of the Super-DMCA (the law that banned firewalls gave your cable-provider absolutel control over what you plugged into your connection, among other ridiculous provisions) has failed to pass the Texas legislature. The architects of this glorious failure — which stymied a multi-million-dollar effort backed by the powerful and sophisticated MPAA — were the volunteers of EFF-Austin, a gang of activists with no significant previous experience in state politics, who bootstrapped themselves into savvy and effective state-capitol machers, stopping this law in its track.
Adina Levin from EFF-Austin has written up a post-mortem of their experiences in state politics. This is a remarkable document, a rare civilian-friendly peek inside the machinations of competing lobbyists and the shortest path to effective action.
The bill was defeated on a point of order — a technicality — on Monday night on the House floor. The bill analysis didn’t match the content of the bill. Points of order don’t happen by accident. Members bring points of order when they oppose the bill, and they’re not positive they have enough votes to win. It takes substantial support to sustain a point of order.
The bill was in the queue to return on Tuesday, as an amendment to SB1952, an omnibus government re-org bill where the sponsor was taking any and all amendments (somebody called it “a Christmas tree bill.”) But the clock ran out at midnight, after only 100 of the 500 amendments in the queue.
We don’t know for sure what would have happened if there was a debate. We do know for sure that there was strong opposition to the bill, from left, right, and center, due to our efforts and the efforts of technology industry allies, to educate and inform members.
In the last few days of the session, a team of eight EFF-Austin/ACLU-Texas volunteers visited all 150 house members’ offices, many of whom hadn’t heard of the bill before we arrived. Many more volunteers wrote, faxed, and called legislators. Volunteers got the word out to other technology user groups. A number of legislators mentioned they’d been getting constituent calls against the bill.
(Thanks (and congrats!), Adina!)