A bill in the works for the upcoming legislative session is focused on ending computer bots in Arizona.
Sen. John Kavanagh wants to make it a crime to use computer software that conceals the sender's identity while impersonating a human.
Kavanagh claims his idea is aimed at stopping online entertainment ticket sales that sell out instantly and force fans to pay far higher prices from secondary sources.
But, Nate Cardoza, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Senate Bill 1011 is narrow sighted.
"The statute was written by someone who has zero background in technology," he said. And, among the tech professionals he works with he said, "The tech perspective is, 'this is just silly.' "
Besides, Cardoza said the bill ignores that programmers have First Amendment rights, because code is a form of speech. The courts upheld a similar case under the same argument in 1999.
