[Misdicorl]

Yes, HIPAA is a good analogue to compare against here. The Maine law is the inverse of HIPAA- it applies to ISPs (hospitals) rather than the data (medical records).

Of course, Maine does not have the power to institute HIPAA like regulations for internet data and so do this instead. Nonetheless, I think the telecoms broadly have a point here.

[mannykannot]

While the Maine law applies to ISPs, there can be little doubt that the underlying issue is the data.