[gnu@gnu.org: Urgent US copyright issue]

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel nuclecu unam mx>]

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Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 10:22:51 -0600
From: Richard Stallman <gnu@gnu.org>
To: info-gnu@gnu.org
Subject: Urgent US copyright issue
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[The FSF is forwarding this in the hope that there is still time for
people to help prevent horrible copyright legislation from passing in
the US.  I wish I had been able to forward it sooner.]


Date:         Mon, 28 Sep 1998 12:58:08 -0500
From: patricem@OMBWATCH.ORG
Subject:      Fw: URGENT ! ACTION NEEDED - COPYRIGHT IN FINAL STAGES
X-To:         gov-info-access@ombwatch.org
To: FOI-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU

I am reposting the ALA newsletter below (with the addition of
some background material from an earlier newsletter) as it
concisely summarizes the situation with the "digital
copyright/collections of information antipiracy" legislation.

As I have noted before in postings, this legislation has the
potential to give the first entity that does any value-added
work on govt. information copyright in that information per se
(not just in its value-additions) -- which could prevent others
from access to the same _raw_ data that the first entity used.
It also would rewrite the definition of 'copyrightable' to
include simple compilations and any 'significant' work (e.g.,
spell-checking/correcting) on public information (i.e., it
would overturn the court ruling in _Feist_).

We could just call this the West [Publishing] Enrichment bill!

Detailed assessments of the pending database legislation (S.
2291/H.R. 2652) and of the pluses and minuses of the version of
the WIPO treaty bill adopted by the House in early August (H.R.
2281) can be found at the Digital Future Coalition site
http://www.dfc.org

Patrice
- - ------------------------
Patrice McDermott
patricem@ombwatch.org
OMB Watch/Public Access Working Group
- - ------------------------
________________________________________________________________
_ ALAWON                                   Volume 7, Number 113
ISSN 1069-7799                           September 28, 1998

     American Library Association Washington Office Newsline

In this issue: (102 lines)

- - - URGENT!!!
  HELP PRESERVE THE FUTURE OF FAIR USE AND DATABASE ACCESS:
  IT'S "NOW OR (PERHAPS) NEVERMORE" . . .
_______________________________________________________________

   HELP PRESERVE THE FUTURE OF FAIR USE AND DATABASE ACCESS:
            IT'S "NOW OR (PERHAPS) NEVERMORE" . . .

It's official.  The "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" (H.R.
2281) is now before a Senate/House Conference Committee that's
poised to act fast. The Committee met for the first time late
last Thursday and could meet for the **last** time as early as
Tuesday, Sept. 29!

Even if you've never contacted Congress before, now is the time
to phone and fax all members of the Conference Committee listed
below (especially if you are a constituent) to ask that they:

(1) SUPPORT **no less protection for fair use** than that
afforded by the House's version of H.R. 2281 (the Senate's
version contains no fair use protection at all); AND

(2) OPPOSE the inclusion of any "database protection"
legislation in the final version of the bill (Title V of the
House bill addresses this issue; the Senate bill is silent).

It's also urgent that BOTH of YOUR Senators -- EVEN THOUGH THEY
MAY NOT BE ON THE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE -- be asked to contact
Senate conference committee leaders Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and
Patrick Leahy (D-VT) immediately to relay the two critical
messages above.  For on-line sample letters, e-mail connections
to your Members of Congress and more background information,
please visit the Washington Office Web site at:
http://congress.nw.dc.us/ala/

BACKGROUND:

With less than a calendar month, and even fewer "legislative
days", remaining in the 105th Congress, now is the time that
the wheels within the wheels either mesh to produce legislation
that gets to the President's desk . . . or don't.  ALA,
together with its many partners in the library community and
the Digital Future Coalition, is fighting hard to assure that
the last minute deals that are the hallmark of this
end-of-Congress environment don't reverse progress made to date
in protecting public access to information or catapult unripe
proposals into law which could jeopardize such access.  Both of
these dangerous scenarios could easily become reality with
respect to the major intellectual property legislation on which
libraries have worked so hard in this Congress.  That's why
your letters now are so critical. The details of database
protection and WIPO treaty implementation legislation can be
complicated, but the key concepts underlying librarians' work
on these bill are as familiar as common sense:

(1) DATABASE:  Both the Departments of Commerce and Justice
have submitted analyses to Congress expressing major concerns,
including potential unconstitutionality, with the "Collections
of Information Antipiracy Act" (S. 2291/H.R. 2652). This
database protection legislation could radically restrict access
to non-copyrightable information.  Thus, it should not be
rushed through Congress at the last minute without Senate
hearings, whether as a separate bill or as part of  the
"Digital Millennium Copyright Act" (H.R. 2281) to implement the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) copyright
treaties with which it was merged by the House in August.  ALA
joined 37 other public and private sector organizations and
companies that wrote to Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin
Hatch last week asking him to defer action on this
controversial measure until the next Congress.  A copy of this
joint letter is posted on the Internet at
http://www.dfc.org/issues/database/jntltr/jntltr.html;

(2) WIPO:  Legislation to implement the WIPO treaties was first
passed by the Senate as S. 2037 without any provision for the
future protection of fair use and various other kinds of lawful
access to information now afforded by the Copyright Act.  In
the House, however, efforts by key members of the Commerce
Committee succeeded in writing basic access safeguards into
H.R. 2281 as approved by the full House in early August.  When
the Senate and House meet to determine the final form of WIPO
treaty legislation, as they will soon, the House bill's
protections for fair use and other kinds of lawful access to
information must be incorporated in the finished product.



With your help this past week, we have made headway, especially
on the "database protection" front.  Senators Burns (R-MT),
Conrad (D-ND), D'Amato (R-NY), Dorgan (D-ND), Lieberman (D-CT),
Moynihan (D-NY), Rockefeller (D-WV), Shelby (R-AL), Snowe
(R-ME), and Wyden (D-OR) all have written to Sens. Hatch and
Leahy expressing concern that database legislation should not
be incorporated into the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act."

If you live in Alabama, Connecticut, Maine, Montana, New York,
North Dakota, Oregon or West Virginia, please be sure to fax
and phone your thanks to these Senators right away.  They are
under heavy pressure from database protection proponents to
withdraw their objections to this seriously flawed legislation.
Your immediate support and thanks will help them hold the line!

 "DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT" CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
        MEMBERS

SENATE

ST PTY    SENATOR                       PHONE          FAX
SC R      Strom Thurmond                224-5972       224-1300
UT R      Orrin G. Hatch, chairman      224-5251       224-6331
VT D      Patrick J. Leahy              224-4242

HOUSE
ST-DST PTY     REPRESENTATIVE           PHONE          FAX
CA-26  D       Howard L. Berman         225-4695       225-5279
IL-6   R       Henry J. Hyde, chairman  225-4561       225-1166
LA-3   R       W. J. Tauzin             225-4031       225-0563
MI-14  D       John Conyers             225-5126       225-0072
MI-16  D       John D. Dingell          225-4071
NC-6   R       Howard Coble             225-3065       225-8611
VA-6   R       Bob Goodlatte            225-5431       225-9681
VA-7   R       Tom Bliley               225-2815       225-0011


FURTHER DETAILS: For detailed assessments of the pending
database legislation (S. 2291/H.R. 2652) and of the pluses and
minuses of the version of the WIPO treaty bill adopted by the
House in early August (H.R. 2281) please point your browser to
http://www.dfc.org
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Contributors:                              Carol C. Henderson
                                           Adam M. Eisgrau
                                           Claudette W. Tennant
All materials subject to copyright by the American Library
Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial
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