House panel approves spyware bill
Cookies are not covered by the bill--something some online advertisers were worried about.
Declan McCullagh Former Senior Writer
Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. You can e-mail him or follow him on Twitter as declanm. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.
A House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill to regulate spyware, a move that begins a second attempt to target the problematic class of software after a similar measure died in the Senate in 2004. Last year, the House voted for the so-called Spy Act by a 399 to 1 margin.
This year's version is slightly different. Author Mary Bono, R-Calif., said that it was revised before Wednesday's vote to clarify that cookies, text files saved by Web browsers, are not covered by the bill--something that some online advertisers had worried about.