HR3636, The Markey Bill, is now available online at the Electronic Frontier Foundation's ftp archive. FTP to ftp.eff.org, and get the text file ~pub/eff/legislation/hr3636 (aka ~pub/eff/legislation/markey.bil). ****** Info on the bill ****** On Monday, November 22, 1993, EFF applauded House Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Minority Chairman Jack Fields (R-Tex.), and other cosponsors for introducing the "National Communications Competition and Information Infrastructure Act of 1993." The Markey/Fields legislation, which incorporates EFF's Open Platform philosophy, is built on three concepts: open platform services, the entry of telephone companies into video cable service, and universal service. Reacting to the open platform provisions, Mitchell Kapor, EFF Board Chairman, stated: "The sponsors of this bill are to be commended for proposing legislation that incorporates a truly democratic vision of the emerging data highway. Open platform service can end channel scarcity once and for all and make it possible for any information provider to offer voice, data, and video services on the data highway. Every citizen will be able to access a true diversity of information and programming." EFF Executive Director Jerry Berman added that "we believe public interest and nonprofit groups, as well as computer and communications industry leaders will work very hard for the open platform provisions. Our goal is to keep them in the bill and make them even stronger before its enactment." AN EFF ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF THE BILL ON PUBLIC INTEREST GOALS OF UNIVERSAL SERVICE, COMMON CARRIAGE, AND CONSUMER EQUITY WILL BE RELEASED AS SOON AS IT IS COMPLETED. For an initial brief analysis (previously posted to comp.org.eff.talk and elsewhere) see ftp.eff.org, ~pub/eff/legislation/announce.mky See also ftp.eff.org or gopher.eff.org, ~pub/eff/papers/op2.0 and ~pub/eff/papers/open-platform* for more information on EFF's Open Platform initiative. See ~pub/eff/legislation/markey.bil for the full text of the Markey Bill.