Northern California and Southern California are locked in battle. It's not over the quality of coffee, the issue of transportation, of taxes or water or real estate or celebrity sightings. It's a battle for the freedom of information and the tools used to distribute that information.

Case in point is SB 96, introduced by former entertainment industry critic turned patsy Kevin Murray, Democratic state Senator from Los Angeles County. Murray has taken on the cause of protecting Southern California's music and film industries from the evil file sharing networks that have caused both industries to struggle with record revenues year after year.

As pointed out on BoingBoing and Edward Felten's Freedom to Tinker, the bill is basically a rehash of Senator Orin Hatch's INDUCE act -- both of which, if loosely interpreted and broadly enforced, would make illegal not only Gnutella clients like LimeWire and Kazaa, but even iTunes, Instant Messaging programs and FTP software. The kind of media technology innovation that is the hallmark of Silicon Valley, largely protected by the Supreme Court's Betamax decision, would be instantly stifled, says Jason Schultz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Thanks to BoingBoing, Ed Felten, Jason at LawGeek and the good folks at the Electronic Frontier Foundation for continuing analysis and coverage. Photo of Kevin Murrary from his California Goverment page.