Opposition rose Tuesday hours before a scheduled floor...
Opposition rose Tuesday hours before a scheduled floor vote Tuesday evening on a cellphone unlocking bill, the Unlocking Consumer Choice Act (HR-1123), sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. “It has overwhelming support in the House,” Goodlatte told…
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reporters Tuesday afternoon after a speech at the NAB State Leadership Conference. He expressed no fear of any opposition derailing the legislation. Democratic Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo both of California had on Monday urged colleagues to vote ‘no,’ citing last-minute changes to the bill revealed last week. The latest draft no longer addresses bulk unlocking. “We announced at the beginning of this process that we were not going to get into the whole [Section] 1201 of the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] issue in this bill,” Goodlatte told reporters. “We were simply going to take care of individual cellphone unlocking, and that [change] was simply designed to make it clear that was the case.” Bulk unlocking will be addressed as part of the committee’s broader review of copyright, Goodlatte added. On Tuesday, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Jared Polis, D-Colo., joined the two Californians in opposition. “After this bill was marked up and reported out of committee, a new section was added to the bill without notice to or consultation with us,” said the Dear Colleague letter from the four members. “As a consequence of this late added provision, both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge have withdrawn support for the bill.” House Judiciary ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., however, does “support this version of the legislation primarily because there is a critical limitation in the bill that tethers it to the sole purpose of switching carriers to increase consumer and carrier choice,” a Conyers spokesman told us. On Tuesday, Goodlatte circulated his own Dear Colleague letter requesting support for his bill. “Due to concerns over smartphone theft rings, the Fraternal Order of Police supports the current language in H.R. 1123 concerning bulk unlocking,” said the letter, signed by Goodlatte, Conyers and Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, Howard Coble, R-N.C., Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.