Money Transmission Act Petition Withdrawn

Earlier this month, I wrote about a pending petition questioning the failure of the Department of Business Oversight to adopt regulations under the Money Transmission Act.  I've recently learned that after receiving assurance from the DBO that it would adopt regulations soon, the petitioner decided to withdraw the petition.  If the DBO doesn't follow through, I expect that another petition will receive a warm reception from the Office of Administrative Law.

Attack of A Job Killer Initiative?

Yesterday, the California Secretary of State's Office announced that the proponents of a new initiative may begin collecting signatures.  According to the summary, this initiative would:

Establishes new standards for the collection of personally identifying information by government and commercial entities, including: (1) the presumption that personally identifying information is confidential and (2) the presumption that the unauthorized disclosure of personally identifying information harms the consumer.

One can only imagine the amount of litigation that would be fomented by this initiative should the voters ever approve it.  The initiative was submitted by Steve Peace and Michael Thorsnes.  According to Thomas O'Toole at the E-Commerce and Tech Law Blog, Steve Peace is the former State Senator.  If so, former Senator Peace may be even more famous as one of the writers credited with the 1978 film Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.  While in the legislature, Senator Peace authored SB 129 which created the Office of Privacy Protection, which was later eliminated.

What Do Movie Moguls and Onions Have in Common?

The answer is 7 U.S.C. § 13-1 which reads:

(a) No contract for the sale of motion picture box office receipts (or any index, measure, value, or data related to such receipts) or onions for future delivery shall be made on or subject to the rules of any board of trade in the United States. The terms used in this section shall have the same meaning as when used in this chapter.

(b) Any person who shall violate the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof be fined not more than $5,000.