[Coco] New Texas IT Requirement

[John Donaldson]

Well, our great Texas Legislator really messed up this time. A bill was 
drafted, passed, sign by the Governor and took effect on July 1, 2008. 
This bill added a requirement for all IT persons now have to ahear to. 
If you do any kind of analysis of the hard drive on a computer or repair 
of a computer, you have to have a PI license. Yes, that is correct, a 
Private Investigation License or you can end up in jail for a year and a 
$4,000 fine. The company you work for can also be fined $10,000 for each 
day that you work on a computer without the PI license. It seems the PI 
Association wrote the law and no one read it prior to passing it on the 
floor and sending it to the Governor for his signuture. It was designed 
to plug a loop hole where CSI type people that work on cases where data 
on the hard drive of a computer is evidence and the person searching it 
was NOT a Licensed Investigator, thus was not qualified and have the 
data on the hard drive thrown out. But they wrote it TOO broad and now 
it covers anyone that works on a computer. Even the 12 year old next 
door neighbor. LOL

So here in Texas if you work on computers, you half to have a PI 
license. To obtain a PI license, you either have to take pass a Criminal 
Investigate Course or serve as an apprientice to a Licensed PI for three 
years. This means you can not work on any computer for a min of three 
years. CIC course is a 4 year College Course.

If Rolan and Martin was still had their TV show, I am sure the Texas 
Legislator would get the Whoope award.



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