SB 1132 – Digital Right to Repair

On Monday, March 10, SB 1132 by Senator Keith Truenow (R-Tavares) was heard and amended by the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee and was reported favorably with 7 yeas and 1 nay. AIF stood in opposition to this legislation.

SB 1132 establishes new guidelines to enforce the digital right to repair for products that are mass produced and often require servicing to perform optimally. The bill requires manufacturers to provide a list of parts and tools used for the repair of devices to dealers and servicing providers. A good example of such products are smartphones and computers. The bill was amended to expand the scope of the proposed guidelines to include agriculture equipment.

SB 1132 will now go to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration.

In its current form, AIF opposes SB 1132 as it would allow intellectual property that is developed and owned by manufacturers, to be readily available for distribution by entities that are not associated with the manufacturer. These reforms could result in higher repair costs for products ranging from smartphones to heavy machinery.

SB 702 – Provenance of Digital Data

On Monday, March 10, SB 702 by Senator Danny Burgess (R-Zephyrhills) was heard by the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee and was reported favorably with 7 yeas and 1 nay. AIF stood in opposition to this legislation.

This bill reworks existing laws that govern online digital content by providing definitions and guidelines related to “provenance data”. As defined in this legislation, provenance data is “information identifying whether some or all of the content has been derived through generative artificial intelligence and, if so, the name of the generative artificial intelligence tool used to generate such content and the organization that developed such tool.” This definition would require businesses to provide notice and origin information on the generative AI that is being used on their platform.

SB 702 will now go to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development for consideration.

AIF opposes legislation that adds extra regulatory state-by-state patchwork to platforms that use generative AI. As written, the scope of the bill includes information on content and capture devices (what produces the image) which could lead to confusing and expensive policy for all sized businesses.