Today I had the pleasure of leading the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development hearing with co-chair Representative Fiola. The committee heard spirited testimony from many presenters on two bills: House Bill 3376 / Senate Bill 2251 An Act relative to the use of elephants, big cats, primates, giraffes, and bears in traveling exhibits and shows, and House Bill 4120 An Act modernizing library access to electronic books and digital audiobooks.
H.3376 / S.2251 would ban the use of designated animals in traveling animal acts such as elephants, big cats, primates, bears, and giraffes. This legislation allows for animals to be kept in permeant fixtures (I.E., zoos) to allow keeping and shows of animals, provided the animals are not transported to take place there. Finally, this bill allows civil penalties and enforcement of violations by any level of law enforcement. The director of the division of fish and wildlife, department of fisheries, wildlife and environmental law enforcement can adopt rules in enforcing this chapter.
House Bill 4120 requires any publisher who offers to license electronic books and digital audiobooks to the public, to also license the electronic books and digital audiobooks to libraries in the commonwealth. The licensing of these electronic and audio mediums would be on reasonable terms permitting libraries to provide their users with access to the material with minor restrictions such as:
- A limitation on simultaneous users having access
- A limitation on the number of days materials may be accessed
- The use of protection measures that would prevent maintaining access to materials beyond the access period set forth in the license and providing materials to others.
These terms shall not include a limitation on the number of licenses for electronic books that libraries may purchase on the same date available to the public.
I want to extend a special thanks to all those who testified during this hearing.