[1] From: David Green <david@ninch.org> (18)
Subject: Fair Use Seriously Endangered
[2] From: David Green <david@ninch.org> (369)
Subject: Help retain fair use in the NII (fwd)
[3] From: David Green <david@ninch.org> (304)
Subject: Hope for Revision in WIPO Legislation: Call for Action
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 13:35:10 -0500
From: David Green <david@ninch.org>
Subject: Fair Use Seriously Endangered
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
June 7, 1998
The spate of copyright legislation appears to be reaching a climax with two
bills that contain language that asserts the absolute right of owners of
copyright to protect digital works electronically with no fair use defense
for circumventing those protections for what have been up until now legal
purposes.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (S 2037) and the WIPO Copyright
Implementation Act both contain this absolute anti-circumvention language
and also do not mention fair use at any point. S2037 was passed last week
in the Senate and a Commerce Department hearing took place June 5 on HR
2281.
Many organizations in the educational, scholarly and cultural community are
calling on members and constituents to contact members of the Commerce
Committee to explain why this language and these two bills would be
harmful.
I am following this brief announcement with a detailed memo from the
National Humanities Alliance that fully explains this situation.
David Green
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 13:36:21 -0500
From: David Green <david@ninch.org>
Subject: Help retain fair use in the NII (fwd)
>Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 14:42:40 -0400 (EDT)
>From: John Hammer <jhammer@cni.org>
>To: David Green <david@ninch.org>
>>
>5 June 1998
>
>MEMORANDUM
>
>TO: NHA Executive Directors
>
>FR: John Hammer
>
>RE: Act Now to Preserve Fair Use in the NII
>
>The long battle to ensure that fair use and related educational and
>library provisions remain robust and effective in the print and digital
>environments has reached a critical stage -- and the scholarly community
>and its allied are in danger of defeat on these core issues. The
>situation in a nutshell:
>
>IN THE SENATE:
>
> o The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (S 2037) passed the Senate
>last month with a provision which, if it becomes law, will undermine
>scholars, librarians and others ability to exercise fair use and related
>provisions, while at the same time, creates a new access right for owners
>of copyrighted materials (section 1201). There are no meaningful
>exceptions for education and library community to this new access right;
>
> o A much more balanced and favorable bill from the humanities
>community point of view, was S 1146 sponsored by Senator John Ashcroft
>(R-MO), which was abandoned last month when Mr. Ashcroft negotiated some
>goals and then became a co-sponsor of S 2037.
>
>IN THE HOUSE
>
> o The WIPO Copyright Treaty Implementation Act (HR 2281), the
>counterpart bill in the House of Representatives which contains the same
>Section 1201 language as the Senate version, has passed the House
>Judiciary Committee and is now before the House Commerce Committee.
>
> o HR 3048, the Boucher-Campbell bill, which has 40 co-sponsors but
>has not produced a collaborative negotiation with the proponents of HR
>2281. HR 3048 is intended to protect all Americans (including copyright
>owners, but not exclusively owners), while being fair and honoring
>innovation and the free market. NOTE: Information on HR 3048 was
>distributed to NHA members earlier this year. Anyone wishing to have a
>comparison of HR 3048 and HR 2281 can receive one by Fax by telephoning
>name and address to NHA at 202/296-4994 or e-mailing to jhammer@cni.org.
>
> o The Commerce Committee claimed jurisdiction over HR 2281 and
>Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunication, Trade and Consumer Protection
>[W.J. "billy" Tauzin (R-LA), Chairman; and Edward J. Markey (D-MA),
>Ranking Minority Member] is holding a hearing today. It is critically
>important that the members of the full Commerce Committee hear from
>humanities-library-other cultural communities explaining why Section 1201
>must be changed to ensure that the balance is maintained between owners
>and users in the networked environment. If the bill as it is presently
>formulated becomes law, it will be damaging to scholarly inquiry and, in
>fact, many forms of research and intellectual activity.
>
>Every NHA member organization is urged to write to the chairman and
>ranking minority member of the full Commerce Committee and the chair and
>ranking minority member of the telecommunications subcommittee mentioned
>above, to express concern about the impact of, in effect, leaving fair use
>out of the digital environment and urging appropriate changes in HR 2281.
>BECAUSE THESE COMMUNICATIONS SHOULD ARRIVE NO LATER THAN JUNE 17 (AND
>PREFERABLY BY JUNE 12), MEMBERS ARE URGED TO FAX OF OVERNIGHT LETTERS.
>ALTERNATIVELY, PHONE CALLS TO STAFFERS RESPONSIBLE FOR INTELLECTUAL
>PROPERTY ISSUES IN ANY HOUSE MEMBER'S OFFICE, ALSO WILL BE VERY HELPFUL.
>The members of the Commerce Committee are listed at the end of this memo.
>Sending a copy of a letter to the chairman to other GOP members and a copy
>of a letter to the ranking minority member to all Democrats will be very
>helpful.
>
>To assist NHA members in this effort, the following is included
>
> o Background and talking points
> o a sample letter plus a suggested "fix"
> o a list of the members of the House Committee on Commerce
>
>BACKGROUND
>
>o The Constitutional provision upon which all copyright law is based,
>calls for a balance of the owners and the public interest (i.e., the
>Constitution justifies offering a monopoly for a brief time to a creator
>by citing the need to promote progress -- This is the basis for the fair
>use tradition.)
>
> "The Congress shall have Power...To promote the Progress of
>Science and the useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and
>Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and
>Discoveries." (Article I, Section 8)
>
>o A bill recently passed by the united States Senate and pending before
>the U.S. House of Representatives contains a provision that would effect
>the most dramatic change in copyright law in over one hundred years.
>Buried in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a measure designed to
>implement new international copyright treaties which bring the rest of the
>world up with current U.S. law, reads:
>
> Section 1201(a). No person shall circumvent a
> technological protection measure that effectively
> controls access to a work protected under this title.
>
>While sounding innocuous, what the provision does is create a brand new
>and unlimited right to control access to copyrighted works. If enacted
>into law, this new right could bypass the carefully crafted balance
>between exclusive rights of ownership and public access to works for
>educational, scholarly, and scientific purposes, which has been part of
>copyright law for the entire 20th Century. In short, it could eliminate
>fair use from copyright law.
>
>o Historically, copyright law has granted creators of works (including
>books, articles, photographs, movies, and music), five exclusive rights.
>These rights permit the copyright owner to control reproduction,
>preparation of derivative works, public performance, public distribution,
>and public display. However, while copyright law grants "exclusive"
>rights, it sets out numerous limitations or exceptions, the most notable
>of which is FAIR USE. These limitations permit, among other things,
>schools and libraries to use materials in classrooms, critics to
>quote from works as part of commentary, cable systems and satellites to
>relay television programs, and parodists to draw upon existing texts to
>express their original thoughts.
>
>The exceptions apply, even in a world of digital works, where
>technological locks can restrict access, because as long as one has a
>lawfully acquired copy, fair use and many of the other statutory
>limitations are not technologically defined. Until now.
>
>o If the right of access is adopted and backed by stiff penalties (S
>2037 and HR 2281 provide for civil remedies of up to $2,500 for each
>access violation and criminal penalties of up to $500,000 - $1,000,000 for
>offenses, plus 10 years in prison), then publishers will be able to
>publicly release works subject to "technological protection measures" and
>prevent any unauthorized access. Even reading paragraphs of an article in
>a library could be banned.
>
>o No exceptions whatsoever are spelled out in the amendments. This
>means there would be no fair use of any work controlled by technological
>measures, because if one cannot access a work without breaking through a
>technological protection measure and thereby violating the law, then one
>cannot quote for teaching, commentary, or scholarship.
>
>o In what Marybeth Peters, the Register of Copyrights, has noted is a
>meaningless act, the Senate bill promises that all limitations and
>defenses to claims of copyright infringement, including fair use, remain
>unaffected by the new law. Section 1201(d). That is only "technically
>correct." Since copyright infringement consists of violating one of the
>older exclusive rights of owners, the new "right of access" is legally
>unrelated to "copyright infringement." Does fair use apply to the right
>of access? There is only one answer the way the bill now reads. No!
>
>o What can be done to preserve the cherished right of anyone to quote
>and use published works without fear of criminal sanctions? Alert the
>members of the House of Representatives to the threat which Section
>1201(a) poses to the entire copyright law system. Make them understand
>that access to lawfully acquired works, even works cloaked in
>technological protection measures, is at the heart of fair use. If we
>enter an era when quoting from published works is a crime unless you have
>permission of the copyright owner, America and the research and education
>enterprise will never be the same.
>
>TALKING POINTS
>
>o Legislation to update the nation's copyright laws to reflect the
>increasingly widespread use of digital networks is now moving through both
>chambers of Congress;
>
>o The versions of these bills approved by the House Judiciary Committee
>and passed by the Senate provide strong new protection for copyrighted
>information;
>
>o These bills also include a "savings clause" intended by the bills'
>authors and proponents to affirm that the Fair Use Doctrine (the part of
>the Copyright Act relied upon by scholars, researchers, educators,
>students, library users and many others to quote from copyrighted works
>without advance permission of the author) applied both to conventional
>print material and to electronically transmitted information;
>
>o However, according to the Register of Copyrights' testimony before
>Congress late last year, this "savings clause" will not apply to the new
>protection provisions of the pending legislation as written because of the
>technical way in which it is worded;
>
>o The problem exists because fair use is a defense under current law to a
>claim of copyright infringement. The pending legislation, however, would
>make it a crime to "circumvent" any electronic protection codes in which a
>copyright owner may "wrap" its material for any purpose -- even if that
>purpose is not now an infringement of copyright (such as making fair use
>of the material, preserving it, or incorporating it into a distance
>learning lesson in the way the Copyright Act now expressly permits.);
>
>o The solution to this problem is to make clear in the new laws that the
>fair use defense (and those other parts of the current Copyright Act
>designed to permit the use of information under limited circumstances
>without the owner's prior authorization) are applicable BOTH in legal
>actions brought for copyright infringement AND to claims for unlawful
>"circumvention" brought in the future under the proposed legislation.
>
>o Unless this adjustment can be made in the pending legislation, the
>practical ability of scholars, educators, students and others to make FAIR
>USE of electronic information could be precluded or dramatically reduced
>by the information owners' unilateral application of an electronic
>protection system.
>
>
>
>SAMPLE LETTER
>(To be Faxed or overnight because of short time frame)
>
>The Honorable Tom Bliley
>Chairman
>Committee on Commerce
>U.S. House of Representatives
>Washington, DC 20515-6115
>
>Dear Mr. Chairman [Dear Representative XXXX]
>
>I write on behalf of [association/society] to express strong concern about
>HR 2281, the "WIPO Copyright Treaties Implementation Act," and to register
>our support for the related provisions in HR 3048, the "Digital Era
>Copyright Enhancement Act." Unfortunately, provisions relating to
>circumvention of copyright protection systems in HR 2281 will eliminate
>the ability of our members as well as our organization -- scholarly
>researchers, library users, students -- to exercise privileges such as
>fair use and related library and education provisions. These education
>and library provisions are at the core of the academic enterprise -- these
>are the essential means by which teachers teach, students learn, and
>researchers advance knowledge. We ask for your support in ensuring that
>the fair use doctrine and related provisions remain robust in the digital
>environment.
>
>Although HR 2281 contains language that appears to ensure that fair use
>and related provisions will be applicable to both print and digital
>environments, it is, in fact unlikely. This serious problem was
>identified by the Register of Copyright in testimony before the Congress
>last year. As reported by the House Judiciary Committee, Section
>1201(a)(1) would prohibit circumvention of a technological measure for any
>purpose -- including lawful purposes such as fair use and related
>education and library provisions. This constitutes an unprecedented and
>unlimited right to control access to a copyrighted work. And, although
>the authors of the legislation have stated that it was their intention to
>preserve fair use and related education provisions via a savings clause
>(1201(d)), as drafted, it falls short of maintaining the critical balance
>between owners and users' rights regarding use of information resources.
>
>It is not difficult to resolve this critical concern. The solution is to
>make clear that fair use and related provisions are applicable under the
>proposed legislation I have included with this letter language that would
>address our concerns and maintain the appropriate level of balance under
>current law.
>
>In closing, I believe that there are a number of other provisions in HR
>2281 including, privacy and over-regulation of emerging technologies that
>do not appear to be in the best interest of our democracy or international
>trade interests. But, fair use is a key to creativity and innovation --
>Not just for scholarly research but for the much broader enterprise that
>has been this nation's strength. The introduction of a right of control
>of access seems precisely the way to weaken that enterprise.
>
>Sincerely yours,
>
>
>
>
>
>
>[ATTACHMENT TO LETTER PRESENTING CHANGES THAT ADDRESS CONCERN]
>
>
>
>CHANGES IN THE PENDING LEGISLATION WOULD ADDRESS THE PROBLEM?
>
>Amended language for Section 1201 "(a) VIOLATIONS REGARDING CIRCUMVENTION
>OF TECHNOLOGICAL PROTECTION MEASURES -- (1) No person shall circumvent a
>technological protection measure that effectively controls access to a
>work protected under this title." INSERT "Nothing in this section shall
>apply to subsequent actions of a person once such person has obtained
>authorized access to a copy of a work protected under title 17 even if
>such actions involve circumvention of other types of technological
>protection measures."
>
>Delete subsection 1201(d)(1) and substitute the following: "(d) OTHER
>RIGHTS, ETC., NOT AFFECTED -- (1) All rights, limitations and defenses
>available under this title, including fair use, shall be applicable to
>actions arising under this Chapter.
>
>
>ALL MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE CAN BE ADDRESSED AS FOLLOWS:
>
> The Honorable [Dagwood Smith]
> U.S House of Representatives
> Washington, DC 20515
>
>ALL MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE CAN BE TELEPHONED THROUGH THE CAPITOL
>SWITCHBOARD: 202/225-3121 -- For FAX numbers, call the member's office
>and request the number or call NHA at 202/296-4994
>
>WHO TO CONTACT - Members of the Commerce Committee listed below but also,
>any other member of the House as this legislation may reach the House
>floor any time after June 17.
>
>COMMERCE COMMITTEE:
>
>Note: An asterisk identified members of the Commerce Committee who are
>also among the 40 co-sponsors of H.R.3048, the Boucher-Campbell bill --
>(They should be thanked for that co-sponsorship).
>
>MAJORITY (GOP)
>
>Tom Bliley, VA = Chairman (full committee)
>W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, LA = Chair, Telecommunications, Trade and
> Consumer Protection Subcommittee
>Michael G. Oxley, OH
>Michael Bilirakis, FL
>Dan Schaefer, CO
>Joe Barton, TX
>J. Dennis Hastert, IL
>Fred Upton, MI
>Cliff Stearns, FL
>Bill Paxon, NY
>Paul E. Gillmor, OH
>* Scott Klug, WI
>James C. Greenwood, PA
>Michael D. Crapo, ID
>Christopher Cox, CA
>Nathan Deal, GA
>Steve Largent, OK
>Richard Burr, NC
>* Brian P. Bilbray, CA
>Ed Whitfield, KY
>Greg Ganske, IA
>* Charlie Norwood, GA
>Rick White, WA
>Tom Coburn, OK
>Rick Lazio, NY
>Barbara Cubin, WY
>James Rogan, CA
>John Shimkus, IL
>
>
>
>MINORITY MEMBERS
>
>John D. Dingell, MI = Ranking Minority Member
>Henry A. Waxman, CA
>Edward J. Markey = Ranking Minority Member,
> telecommunications subcommittee
>* Ralph M. Hall, TX
>* Rick Boucher, VA
>Thomas J. Manton, NY
>* Edolphus Towns, NY
>* Frank J. Pallone, Jr, NJ
>* Sherrod Brown, OH
>Bart Gordon, TN
>* Elizabeth Furse, OR
>Peter Deutsch, FL
>Bobby Rush, IL
>Anna G. Eshoo, CA
>Ron Klink, PA
>Bart Stupak, MI
>Eliot L. Engel, NY
>Thomas C. Sawyer, OH
>Albert R. Wynn, MD
>Gene Green, TX
>Karen McCarthy, MO
>Ted Strickland, OH
>Diana DeGette, CO
>
--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 18:18:15 -0500
From: David Green <david@ninch.org>
Subject: Hope for Revision in WIPO Legislation: Call for Action
NINCH ANNOUNCEMNT
June 8, 1998
According to the report below (in the ALAWON newsletter of the American
Library Association), the Commerce Committee's hearing on the WIPO
Copyright Implementation Act (H.R. 2281) last Friday included many
suggestions to change the legislation.
According to the ALA report, "Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley
and Ranking Member John Dingell...made opening statements indicating that
changes in H.R. 2281 might well be necessary to assure that it did not
impede commerce by affording some information owners excessive control over
their product to the detriment of other businesses, students and library
users."
Putting his finger on the heart of the objections from the library and
scholarly communities, Prof. Robert Oakley, library director of the
Georgetown University Law Center, emphasized that:
> "H.R. 2281, as drafted, would grant copyright owners a
> new and unrestricted exclusive right to control access
> to information in digital works which could negate one
> of the most basic principles that has made the U.S. so
> clearly a leader in intellectual creativity,
> innovation, and commerce -- the ability to gain access
> to information in published or publicly available
> works. . . . By access I mean the right to read and,
> even more simply, the right to browse published works.
> Taken another step, it means the right to use works in
> ways currently allowed by exemptions and limitations in
> copyright -- expressly crafted by Congress -- to permit
> fair use, use for library preservation, and use in
> classroom teaching."
>
As you can see, the ALA is petitioning constituents to contact legislators
and commerce committee members to indicate opposition to the language as
currently drafted.
David Green
===========
>Date: Mon, 08 Jun 1998 14:53:03 -0400
>From: ALAWASH E-MAIL (ALAWASH E-MAIL) <ALAWASH@alawash.org>
>To: ALA Washington Office Newsline <ala-wo@ala1.ala.org>
>>
>=================================================================
>ALAWON Volume 7, Number 61
>ISSN 1069-7799 June 8, 1998
>
> American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
>
>In this issue: (260 lines)
>
>MOMENTUM SWINGING IN HOUSE TOWARD REWORKING "WIPO" COPYRIGHT
>LEGISLATION TO PROTECT FAIR USE; ACTION NEEDED BY THIS FRIDAY,
>JUNE 12
>_________________________________________________________________
>
>MOMENTUM SWINGING IN HOUSE TOWARD REWORKING "WIPO" COPYRIGHT
>LEGISLATION TO PROTECT FAIR USE; ACTION NEEDED BY THIS FRIDAY,
>JUNE 12.
>
>ACTION NEEDED: If fair use and other copyright exceptions are
>finally to get the statutory protection that they need and
>deserve in cyberspace, it is likely to be the House Commerce
>Committee -- especially its Telecommunications Subcommittee
>chaired by Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA) -- that will make the
>necessary changes required in H.R. 2281, The WIPO Copyright
>Treaties Implementation Act (see BACKGROUND below).
>
>To that end, all ALA members and library supporters are urged --
>NO LATER THAN THIS FRIDAY, JUNE 12 -- to contact Congress in
>writing and by phone or fax in support of changes to H.R. 2281 to
>protect "fair use," and in support of H.R. 3048, The Digital Era
>Copyright Enhancement Act -- the library-friendly
>"Boucher/Campbell" bill previously endorsed by ALA. Specifically:
>
>1. EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THEIR CONSTITUENTS, please
> contact Commerce Committee leaders Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-VA)
> and John Dingell (D-MI), AND Telecommunications Subcommittee
> leaders Reps. Billy Tauzin and Ed Markey (D-MA) to thank
> them for holding Friday's (June 5) hearing (see HOUSE
> HEARING below), their support of "balanced" copyright law in
> general, and to STRONGLY URGE THEIR SPECIFIC SUPPORT FOR
> RELATED AMENDMENTS TO H.R. 2281 to be offered by Rep. Rick
> Boucher (D-VA) later this month (e.g., updating the Fair Use
> and First Sale Doctrines);
>
> Address Correspondence:
> THE HONORABLE (FULL NAME)
> UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
> WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515
>
> ST-DST PTY REPRESENTATIVE PHONE FAX
> LA-3 R Billy Tauzin 202-225-4031 202-225-0563
> MA-7 D Edward J. Markey 202-225-2836 N/A
> VA-7 R Thomas J. Bliley 202-225-2815 202-225-0011
> MI-16 D John D. Dingell 202-225-4071 N/A
>
>2. Please also send a copy of your letter to your own
> Representative -- ESPECIALLY IF THEY'RE ON THE ATTACHED LIST
> OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS -- with an
> additional note asking them to:
>
> - COSPONSOR H.R. 3048 by Reps. Boucher and Campbell, AND
> - OPPOSE any form of H.R. 2281 which does not contain
> library-endorsed changes intended to assure that fair use
> will fully apply in cyberspace; AND
>
>3. IF YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IS ON THE ATTACHED LIST OF H.R. 3048
> COSPONSORS, please thank him or her for their cosponsorship
> and ask them, as well, to OPPOSE any form of H.R. 2281 which
> does not contain library-endorsed changes intended to assure
> that fair use will fully apply in cyberspace.
>_________________________________________________________________
>
>HOUSE COMMERCE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS
>
>ST-DST PTY REPRESENTATIVE PHONE FAX
> (use 202 area code)
>CA-14 D Anna G. Eshoo 225-8104 225-8890
>CA-27 R James E. Rogan 225-4176 225-5828
>CA-47 R Christopher Cox 225-5611 225-9177
>CO-6 R Dan Schaefer 225-7882 225-7885
>FL-6 R Clifford B. Stearns 225-5744 225-3973
>GA-9 R Nathan Deal 225-5211 225-8272
>IL-1 D Bobby L. Rush 225-4372 226-0333
>IL-14 R J. Dennis Hastert 225-2976 225-0697
>IL-20 R John M. Shimkus 225-5271 225-5880
>LA-3 R Billy Tauzin, Chair 225-4031 225-0563
>MD-4 D Albert R. Wynn 225-8699 225-8714
>MA-7 D Edward J. Markey, Rnk. Mem. 225-2836 N/A
>MI-6 R Frederick S. Upton 225-3761 225-4986
>MI-16 D John D. Dingell 225-4071 N/A
>MO-5 D Karen McCarthy 225-4535 225-4403
>NY-7 D Thomas J. Manton 225-3965 225-1909
>NY-17 D Eliot L. Engel 225-2464 225-5513
>OH-4 R Michael G. Oxley 225-2676 N/A
>OH-5 R Paul E. Gillmor 225-6405 225-1985
>OH-14 D Thomas C. Sawyer 225-5231 225-5278
>OK-1 R Steve Largent 225-2211 225-9187
>PA-4 D Ron Klink 225-2565 226-2274
>TN-6 D Bart Gordon 225-4231 225-6887
>TX-6 R Joe Barton 225-2002 225-3052
>TX-29 D Gene Green 225-1688 225-9903
>VA-7 R Thomas J. Bliley 225-2815 225-0011
>VA-9 D Rick Boucher 225-3861 225-0442
>WA-1 R Rick White 225-6311 225-3524
>WI-2 R Scott L. Klug 225-2906 225-6942
>_________________________________________________________________
>
>CURRENT CO-SPONSORS OF H.R. 3048
>
>ST-DST PTY REPRESENTATIVE PHONE FAX
> (use 202 area code)
>CA-6 D Lynn C. Woolsey 225-5161 225-5163
>CA-12 D Tom Lantos 225-3531 225-7900
>CA-15 R Tom Campbell 225-2631 225-6788
>CA-31 D Matthew G. Martinez 225-5464 225-5467
>CA-34 D Esteban Torres 225-5256 225-9711
>CA-45 R Dana Rohrabacher 225-2415 225-0145
>CA-46 D Loretta Sanchez 225-2965 225-5859
>CA-49 R Brian P. Bilbray 225-2040 225-2948
>CO-2 D David E. Skaggs 225-2161 226-3806
>CO-6 R Dan Schaefer 225-7882 225-7885
>CT-4 R Christopher Shays 225-5541 225-9629
>CT-5 D James H. Maloney 225-3822 225-5746
>DE-1 R Michael N. Castle 225-4165 225-2291
>FL-3 D Corrine Brown 225-0123 225-2256
>FL-5 D Karen L. Thurman 225-1002 226-0329
>GA-10 R Charles W. Norwood 225-4101 225-0279
>IL-5 D Rod R. Blagojevich 225-4061 225-5603
>IL-17 D Lane Evans 225-5905 225-5396
>MD-8 R Constance A. Morella 225-5341 225-1389
>MA-2 D Richard E. Neal 225-5601 225-8112
>MI-9 D Dale E. Kildee 225-3611 225-6393
>MN-3 R Jim Ramstad 225-2871 225-6351
>MN-7 D Collin C. Peterson 225-2165 225-1593
>MS-1 R Roger F. Wicker 225-4306 225-3549
>MO-7 R Roy Blunt 225-6536 225-5604
>NJ-6 D Frank Pallone 225-4671 225-9665
>NY-10 D Edolphus Towns 225-5936 225-1018
>NY-11 D Major R. Owens 225-6231 226-0112
>NY-25 R James T. Walsh 225-3701 225-4042
>NC-2 D Bob Etheridge 225-4531 225-5662
>OH-10 D Dennis J. Kucinich 225-5871 225-5745
>OH-13 D Sherrod Brown 225-3401 225-2266
>OH-19 R Steve C. LaTourette 225-5731 225-3307
>OR-1 D Elizabeth Furse 225-0855 225-9497
>OR-3 D Earl Blumenauer 225-4811 225-8941
>OR-4 D Peter A. DeFazio 225-6416 226-3502
>PA-14 D William J. Coyne 225-2301 225-1844
>PA-15 D Paul McHale 225-6411 225-5320
>SC-5 D John M. Spratt 225-5501 225-0464
>SC-6 D James E. Clyburn 225-3315 225-2313
>TN-2 R John J. Duncan 225-5435 225-6440
>TX-1 D Max Sandlin 225-3035 225-5866
>TX-4 D Ralph M. Hall 225-6673 225-3332
>VA-2 D Owen B. Pickett 225-4215 225-4218
>VA-9 D Rick Boucher 225-3861 225-0442
>WA-7 D Jim McDermott 225-3106
>WV-3 D Nick J. Rahall 225-3452 225-9061
>WI-2 R Scott L. Klug 225-2906 225-6942
>_________________________________________________________________
>
>BACKGROUND: In recent weeks, ALA, its fellow library
>associations, and the dozens of other private and public sector
>members of the Digital Future Coalition have fought hard -- but
>unsuccessfully -- to produce fair use-friendly changes in major
>new copyright legislation to implement the 1996 World
>Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.
>First, the House Judiciary Committee approved H.R. 2281, The WIPO
>Copyright Treaties Implementation Act, in a form perhaps intended
>to protect fair use in the digital environment but which --
>according to the Register of Copyrights -- fails to do so as
>written. The full Senate followed suit soon afterwards
>(improving the House bill somewhat by enabling digital
>preservation and commissioning a study of distance educators'
>needs), adopting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, (S. 2037),
>by a vote of 99-0.
>
>HOUSE HEARING: Fortunately, however, the story is far from over.
>On Friday, June 5 the House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on
>Telecommunications -- chaired by Rep. Billy Tauzin -- met to
>consider H.R. 2281, particularly its impact on fair use and the
>many educational and commercial activities now legal that would
>be criminalized by the bill. In a session extraordinarily well
>attended by Members, the Subcommittee heard from a dozen
>witnesses, the majority of whom were highly critical of H.R.
>2281's overreaching prohibition on the merely gaining "access"
>to any information that had been "wrapped" by its owner in
>protective digital coding . . . even if such access were achieved
>solely to make lawful us of the underlying material.
>
>Testifying on behalf of the AALL, ALA, ARL, MLA and SLA, Prof.
>Robert Oakley, library director of the Georgetown University Law
>Center, emphasized that:
>
> "H.R. 2281, as drafted, would grant copyright owners a
> new and unrestricted exclusive right to control access
> to information in digital works which could negate one
> of the most basic principles that has made the U.S. so
> clearly a leader in intellectual creativity,
> innovation, and commerce -- the ability to gain access
> to information in published or publicly available
> works. . . . By access I mean the right to read and,
> even more simply, the right to browse published works.
> Taken another step, it means the right to use works in
> ways currently allowed by exemptions and limitations in
> copyright -- expressly crafted by Congress -- to permit
> fair use, use for library preservation, and use in
> classroom teaching."
>
>This central theme also was underscored by several other
>witnesses. Prof. Oakley and others strongly urged the
>Subcommittee to make the changes in H.R. 2281 necessary to
>conform its actual language to the intent of its drafters.
>Specifically, they supported proposed amendments by H.R. 3048
>co-author Rep. Rick Boucher to make the "circumvention" of a digital
>wrapper to gain "access" to copyrighted material an offense only
>when such access results in "copyright infringement": not when
>undertaken to make fair use (or other legal use) of that
>material.
>
>MESSAGE RECEIVED: This message, often and strongly made at the
>June 5 hearing, clearly was well received and fully appreciated,
>particularly by the leadership of the Subcommittee and the full
>House Commerce Committee itself. Commerce Committee Chairman
>Thomas Bliley and Ranking Member John Dingell also both attended
>and made opening statements indicating that changes in H.R. 2281
>might well be necessary to assure that it did not impede commerce
>by affording some information owners excessive control over their
>product to the detriment of other businesses, students and
>library users.
>
>The Subcommittee's leaders struck the same chords in their
>opening statements and many questions of the witness panel.
>Indeed, Subcommittee Chairman Tauzin riveted the audience with
>his obvious affection and appreciation for the role of libraries,
>and heartfelt description of how he "grew up in a bookmobile" to
>which his mother took him "every Tuesday" throughout his
>childhood in Louisiana's rural bayou country. Subcommittee
>Chairman Tauzin made clear that he didn't think that legislation
>should proceed until the Subcommittee was certain that the bill
>did no violence to fair use and the continued availability of no-fee
>library access to (and use of) information that it affords.
>Ranking Democrat Ed Markey, focussing on the needs of high-tech
>companies in his own district, concurred with Chairman Tauzin.
>_________________________________________________________________
>
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>1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F)
>Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V)
>
>Lynne E. Bradley, Editor <leb@alawash.org>
>Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor <alawash@alawash.org>
>
>Contributors: Adam Eisgrau
>All materials subject to copyright by the American Library
>Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial
>purposes with appropriate credits.
>=================================================================
>
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