Legislature: legislative information: public use.

Existing law prohibits a television signal generated by the Assembly from being used for any political or commercial purpose, including, but not limited to, any campaign for elective public office or any campaign supporting or opposing a ballot proposition submitted to the electors. Existing law provides that a person or organization who violates this prohibition is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would repeal these provisions. Existing law requires the Legislative Counsel, with the advice of the Assembly Committee on Rules and the Senate Committee on Rules, to make certain information available to the public in electronic form, including, among other things, the text of each bill introduced in each current legislative session, including each amended, enrolled, and chaptered form of each bill. Existing law provides that no actions taken pursuant to these requirements alter or relinquish any copyright or other proprietary interest or entitlement of the State of California in the information made available to the public. This bill would place the information that the Legislative Counsel makes available to the public pursuant to these provisions within the public domain and would provide that the State of California retains no copyright or other proprietary interest in that information. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.