The provision would have prohibited that state's government agencies from providing information or services electronically to the public if the actions could be perceived as competitive with two or more commercial services providing similar services.
As we reported previously in the Watcher (see "ALEC-backed Attack on E-Gov't Move in States," May 5, 2003, Vol. 3, No. 4), the provision was moving through the Ohio legislature and was attached to a state budget bill (House Bill 95). Similar anti-competition bills were moving through the state legislatures of Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Rhode Island. Having passed in the Ohio House of Representatives and under consideration as part of the must-pass operating budget bill in the state's Senate, the Ohio proposal had come the closest to becoming law.
The anti-competition provision came under attack from a broad array of groups, including the American Association of Law Libraries, American Library Association, American Society of Newspaper Editors, Association of Research Libraries, Environmental Defense, Ohio Public Interest Research Group, OMB Watch, People For the American Way, Project On Government Oversight, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
The provision was originally introduced in the Ohio House as House Bill 145.