CSSB 140(JUD): "An Act relating to spyware and unsolicited Internet advertising."
00 CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 140(JUD) 01 "An Act relating to spyware and unsolicited Internet advertising." 02 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 03 * Section 1. AS 45.45 is amended by adding new sections to read: 04 Article 10A. Deceptive Acts or Practices Relating to Spyware. 05 Sec. 45.45.792. Prohibited conduct relating to spyware. (a) It is unlawful 06 for a person who is not the owner or authorized user of a computer to engage in 07 deceptive acts or practices described in this subsection using spyware. Deceptive acts 08 or practices under this subsection are 09 (1) causing a pop-up advertisement to be shown on the computer 10 screen of a user by means of a spyware program, knowing that the pop-up 11 advertisement is 12 (A) displayed in response to a user accessing a specific 13 (i) mark; or 14 (ii) Internet website address; and 15 (B) purchased or acquired by a person other than
01 (i) the mark owner; 02 (ii) a licensee of the mark; 03 (iii) an authorized agent of the owner of the mark; 04 (iv) an authorized user of the mark; or 05 (v) a person advertising the lawful sale, lease, or 06 transfer of products bearing the mark through a secondary marketplace 07 for the sale of goods or services; and 08 (2) purchasing advertising that violates (1) of this subsection if the 09 purchaser of the advertising 10 (A) receives notice of the violation from the mark owner; and 11 (B) fails to stop the violation. 12 (b) It is not a violation of this section for a person to display a pop-up 13 advertisement under (a)(1) of this section if the spyware program includes a function 14 that 15 (1) requests information about the user's state of residence before 16 displaying a pop-up advertisement to the user, and the user indicates a residence 17 outside this state; 18 (2) implements a reasonably reliable automated system to determine 19 the user's likely geographic location, according to current best practices in the field, 20 and the system determines that it is unlikely that the user is located in this state; and 21 (3) does not prompt, ask, or otherwise encourage a user to indicate a 22 residence outside this state. 23 (c) It is not a violation of (a)(2) of this section if a person purchases 24 advertising that complies with the requirements of (b) of this section. 25 Sec. 45.45.794. Removal of potentially harmful software. Notwithstanding 26 AS 45.45.792, a provider of computer software or an interactive computer service 27 may, after notice to a customer, remove from or disable a program on the customer's 28 computer that is used to 29 (1) violate AS 45.45.792; or 30 (2) collect information from the computer of the customer without the 31 customer's knowledge.
01 Sec. 45.45.798. Definitions. In AS 45.45.792 - 45.45.798, 02 (1) "interactive computer service" means an information service, 03 system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by 04 multiple users to a computer server; "interactive computer service" includes an 05 Internet or online service provider or a service or system providing access to the 06 Internet, including a system operated by a library or educational institution; 07 (2) "Internet" means the combination of computer systems or networks 08 that make up the international network for interactive communications services, 09 including remote logins, file transfer, electronic mail, and newsgroups; 10 (3) "Internet or online service provider" means an interactive computer 11 service that provides software or other material that enables a person to transmit, 12 receive, display, forward, cache, search, subset, organize, reorganize, or translate 13 content; select or analyze content; or allow or disallow content; 14 (4) "mark" means a registered trademark, registered service mark, or 15 registered domain name in an Internet website address that is owned, licensed, or 16 lawfully used by a person doing business in this state; 17 (5) "pop-up advertisement" means material offering for sale or 18 advertising the availability or quality of a property, good, or service that is displayed 19 on a user's computer screen, without any request or consent of the user, separate from 20 an Internet website that a user intentionally accesses; 21 (6) "spyware" 22 (A) means software on the computer of a user who resides in 23 the state that 24 (i) collects information about an Internet website at the 25 time the Internet website is being viewed in the state, unless the 26 Internet website is the Internet website of the person who provides the 27 software; and 28 (ii) uses the information collected contemporaneously 29 to display a pop-up advertisement on the computer; 30 (B) does not mean 31 (i) an Internet website;
01 (ii) a service operated by an Internet or online service 02 provider accessed by a user; 03 (iii) software designed and installed primarily to 04 prevent, diagnose, detect, or resolve technical difficulties or prevent 05 fraudulent activities; 06 (iv) software designed and installed to protect the 07 security of the user's computer from unauthorized access or alteration; 08 (v) software or data that reports information to an 09 Internet website previously stored by the Internet website on the user's 10 computer, including a cookie; in this sub-subparagraph, "cookie" 11 means a text file that is placed on a computer to record information that 12 can be read or recognized when the user of the computer later accesses 13 a particular Internet website, online location, or online service by an 14 interactive computer service, Internet website, or a third party acting on 15 behalf of an interactive computer service or an Internet website; 16 (vi) software that provides the user with the capability 17 to search the Internet; 18 (vii) software installed on the user's computer with the 19 consent of the user the primary purpose of which is to prevent access to 20 certain Internet content; 21 (7) "user" means the owner or authorized user of a computer. 22 * Sec. 2. AS 45.50.471(b) is amended by adding a new paragraph to read: 23 (51) violating AS 45.45.792 (deceptive acts or practices relating to 24 spyware).