In an effort to head off the misguided Spy Act bill that would ban a wide range of technical methods of running web applications and collecting data - throwing out, for instance, the browser cookie baby with the spyware bathwater - the House Judiciary Committee will have a formal hearing on the alternative Internet Spyware Prevention Act (ISPA) next week. The ISPA more specifically bans the unwanted behavior of spyware, particularly installing software without permission, rather than banning particular technical methods.

Lawmakers just recently witnessed a good example of the disadvantages of banning technical methods, with its most recent wiretapping law effectively thwarted by a First Circuit decision that noted that an accused copier of emails used a different technical method to snoop than the one prohibited in the law.