Next stop: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Blown EPROM

The state of Texas is trying to make the tech who saves your lost computer files become a licensed private investigator. No, we’re not kidding.

Blame House Bill 2833, nominally authored by committee chair Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, which came through the House Law Enforcement Committee last session. The law says that anyone “obtaining or furnishing information [including] information obtained or furnished through the review and analysis of, and the investigation into the content of, computer-based data not available to the public” must be licensed by the Texas Department of Public Safety Private Security Board. Before it passed, there was lots of testimony from bodies like the Texas Association of Licensed Investigators and the Texas Association of Locksmiths, but none from computer repair firms.

Now it’s coming down to a fight between the PI community, which is claiming that anyone who does a computer repair or data retrieval needs to be a licensed investigator because of privacy and fraud concerns, and the computer repair community, which is pretty much saying that’s the dumbest thing they’ve ever heard. So the Institute for Justice is suing the state on the behalf of local computer repair firms and computer owners who can’t work out why the state thinks every guy with a soldering iron has to be Magnum P.I. now.

This article appears in June 20 • 2008.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.