Crist signs ban on music impostors, other bills
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- It isn't quite robbin' people with a six-gun, but music acts who purport to be groups they're not may soon be singing about how they fought the law, and the law won.
Gov. Charlie Crist signed legislation Friday that makes it a misdemeanor for people to take the stage using the name of a band if they're not really the band who made the name famous.
The new law prohibits people or groups from advertising or holding a live performance using a "false, deceptive, or misleading statement of an affiliation, connection, or association between a performing group and a recording group."
Crist also signed legislation reauthorizing the back-to-school sales tax holiday for another year, and a new law that cracks down further on online child predators. He also signed a bill that says bars can't force people to buy alcohol as a condition of staying in the bar -- a measure to protect designated drivers.
Backers of the bill to ban rock-n-roll impostors, which was sponsored by Sen. Burt Saunders and Rep. Mike Davis, both Republicans from Naples, told lawmakers earlier this year that it was actually a serious problem. Groups have held performances claiming to be the Coasters, the Drifters, the Shirelles, the Platters and other old groups when none of the original members were actually on stage. In Florida, with its legions of retirees, it is usually new versions of 1950s acts playing the nostalgia circuit, that are the problem.
The measure (SB 426) will still allow bands to use the names of old acts if at least one member of the group was a member of the original act and has the legal right to use the name. It would also continue to allow bands to use names they have trademarks for, even if they aren't the originals, and would still let tribute bands perform, as long as it's clear that's what they are.
Crist also signed legislation to strengthen penalties for the possession of child pornography and requiring sexual predators to register their e-mail addresses and online chat names with authorities.
That bill (SB 1004) was the highest legislative priority of Attorney General Bill McCollum.
Predators who initiate contact online with a minor, or someone they think is a minor, and are then intercepted by law enforcement on their way to an arranged meeting, could now face up to 15 years in prison. Under the old law, unless physical contact is made, the offender could only be charged with online solicitation, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The legislation also makes possession of child pornography punishable by up to 15 years and requires sexual predators to register their e-mail address and online instant messaging names with authorities twice a year, just as they already do with their physical home addresses under the Jessica Lunsford Act.
Law enforcement will now provide those names to social networking sites such as MySpace.com, which can then use the information to block the predators from their sites.
The bill to create this year's sales tax holiday will make back-to-school shopping cheaper with a waiver of the state's 6 percent sales tax and local option taxes on clothing, books and certain other items from Aug. 4-13. The popular sales tax break has been offered several years, but lawmakers have never made it permanent and so they have had to pass a new law authorizing it each year.
The governor signed another bill (SB 282) that prevents bars from requiring people to leave or buy an alcoholic drink, a response to a lawsuit filed by a man allegedly kicked out of a bar because he just wanted to drink soda.
Other bills Crist signed Friday included one (HB 509) intended to better coordinate the work of several state agencies that deal with children's issues by creating a Children and Youth Cabinet, and one (SB 184) to increase penalties for nonfatal domestic battery by strangulation.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
