SB 29-14: I am A Robot Act (Failed)

[Left Wing]

AN ACT
To get rid of annoyances

Be it enacted by the Congress of the Republic of Atlasia assembled

Section 1. Title

This legislation may be cited as the I Am A Robot Act.

Section 2. Definition

1. A "CAPTCHA", or a Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, shall be defined as any barrier to completing an Internet action requiring users to distinguish themselves as human.

Section 3. Substance
1. Any website with servers based in Atlasia is prohibited from implementing or hosting CAPTCHAs with the following characteristics:
-Requires users to click photographs of certain objects before proceeding
-Requires users to solve complex tasks
-Requires users to read distorted words and type in the answer
2. Any website using this feature is ordered to stop immediately.
3. The hosts of said servers still using such CAPTCHAs as of January 1, 2022, may be fined up to $5,000.
4. Simple CAPTCHAs (check-box clicks) shall not be affected by this law.

Passed 4-3-1-2 in the Atlasian House assembled

Sponsor: Sev
Status: Final Vote

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

A 4-3-1-2 vote, if one of the abstains had voted no, that would be a hilarious combination on the house side. Missed opportunity.

[Dr. MB]

A 4-3-1-2 vote, if one of the abstains had voted no, that would be a hilarious combination on the house side. Missed opportunity.

It would've failed 3-6 if every member voted on it. Razze tried to switch his vote from abstain to no and was too late, Harvey voted a few days too late against it, and I can't see Deadprez voting for this in any case. Really got lucky that enough members didn't show up that it passed on a tiebreaker.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

A 4-3-1-2 vote, if one of the abstains had voted no, that would be a hilarious combination on the house side. Missed opportunity.

It would've failed 3-6 if every member voted on it. Razze tried to switch his vote from abstain to no and was too late, Harvey voted a few days too late against it, and I can't see Deadprez voting for this in any case. Really got lucky that enough members didn't show up that it passed on a tiebreaker.

Sometimes these things happen.

[SevenEleven]

I can sponsor I guess.

[Left Wing]

24 hours to object to Sev’s sponsorship

[Left Wing]

Sev is recognized as sponsor

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Looks like I made a slide rule/frame shift type error myself and misnumbered Let's Get Wired. As a a result this is SB29-14.

[Blair]

I'm admittedly quite unsure about this legislation; I know I'm largely repeating what was said in the House thread but I'm somewhere between being happy if they didn't exist/where reformed heavily but unsure if we should be heading in the direction of this legislation.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I'm admittedly quite unsure about this legislation; I know I'm largely repeating what was said in the House thread but I'm somewhere between being happy if they didn't exist/where reformed heavily but unsure if we should be heading in the direction of this legislation.

What is the source of the uncertainty, the action of regulating this in general? or just the way in which this bill does it?

[Blair]

I'm admittedly quite unsure about this legislation; I know I'm largely repeating what was said in the House thread but I'm somewhere between being happy if they didn't exist/where reformed heavily but unsure if we should be heading in the direction of this legislation.

What is the source of the uncertainty, the action of regulating this in general? or just the way in which this bill does it?

Just in the way this bill does; I suppose it's slightly hypocritical because I supported (its my bill) quite tough regulations around privacy on social media & advertising- so I don't believe we don't have the power to do it, I'm just unsure if it's the right thing to do. 

[Sirius_]

Well a big problem with this is that it is basically forcing the internet to have worse security. Eliminating Captchas allows people to infiltrate websites with much less sophisticated bots, which means that more people can and will do such things, all in the name of saving 20 seconds or so when signing up or filling out a form.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I'm admittedly quite unsure about this legislation; I know I'm largely repeating what was said in the House thread but I'm somewhere between being happy if they didn't exist/where reformed heavily but unsure if we should be heading in the direction of this legislation.

What is the source of the uncertainty, the action of regulating this in general? or just the way in which this bill does it?

Just in the way this bill does; I suppose it's slightly hypocritical because I supported (its my bill) quite tough regulations around privacy on social media & advertising- so I don't believe we don't have the power to do it, I'm just unsure if it's the right thing to do. 

Well there can always be some layer at which the extension of regulatory authority can become problematic for someone.

I can see your point though.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Well a big problem with this is that it is basically forcing the internet to have worse security. Eliminating Captchas allows people to infiltrate websites with much less sophisticated bots, which means that more people can and will do such things, all in the name of saving 20 seconds or so when signing up or filling out a form.

That's the unfortunate trade off between minimizing inconveniences and protecting privacy and security.

[SevenEleven]

Well a big problem with this is that it is basically forcing the internet to have worse security. Eliminating Captchas allows people to infiltrate websites with much less sophisticated bots, which means that more people can and will do such things, all in the name of saving 20 seconds or so when signing up or filling out a form.

This only eliminates overly complex captchas, which I think is a reasonable compromise between security and usability.

[Pericles]

These CAPTCHAs are annoying, but it's a minor issue so should we really be dictating to companies like this? Do we really know best? I'd like to see more of a case for what the benefit from this bill would be.

razze also changed his vote before MB tallied the vote, so as an administrative issue, the vote arguably was still open and he should have been allowed to change it.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

These CAPTCHAs are annoying, but it's a minor issue so should we really be dictating to companies like this? Do we really know best? I'd like to see more of a case for what the benefit from this bill would be.

razze also changed his vote before MB tallied the vote, so as an administrative issue, the vote arguably was still open and he should have been allowed to change it.

It becomes a matter of discretion at a certain point but technically the maximum time length would be the arbiter here since it was a determinative vote regarding passage. By my count, Razze's change was over 72 hours after the vote was started. For instance if it had failed by counting a late vote, that could lead to a lawsuit and thus MB falling back to the rules as the safe position was probably the prudent course here.

[Senator-elect Spark]

Don't CAPTCHAS serve a security purpose? I am in favor of getting rid of them, but shouldn't we replace it with something else to act as a barrier?

[SevenEleven]

These CAPTCHAs don't really do anything more than a simpler one would, and they limit the ability of disabled people to use the internet.

[Blair]

I've actually seen more and more ones recently that just require you to tick a box; I'm not an expert on how CAPTCHAs but I've always been quite sceptical of them from a security purpose- so I am leaning towards supporting this bill.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Bumping this.

[SevenEleven]

Bumping this.

I'm comfortable moving to a final vote.

[Pericles]

Sure it's a problem but it seems minor enough that the givernmehtninterfering in such a big way may be more problematic, and I'm no hardcore deregulatory capitalist.

[Blair]

Motion for a final vote

edit: I think this is one of those ones where we're not going to amend it so lets just give it an up or down vote

[Pericles]

Motion for a final vote

edit: I think this is one of those ones where we're not going to amend it so lets just give it an up or down vote

Yeah I don't see much room for amendment. Maybe providing some exceptions to 'any website'?