GRC Update #96-1 (posted 1/3/96)
To keep AALL members informed of the activities of the AALL Government
Relations Committee and the AALL Washington Office, this update and other
postings will be distributed periodically. Some letters and documents
mentioned in the update may be available in the Government Relations file
at AALLNET. To access AALLNET, telnet to "lawlib.wuacc.edu" and login as
"aallnet." AALLNET is accessible via the World Wide Web; the URL is
http://lawlib.wuacc.edu/aallnet/aallnet/html.
LETTERS TO AND OUTCOME:
(1) To New Jersey Assembly urging support for bringing Senate bill 1068
to the floor of the New Jersey Senate. The bill would make legislative
information, including the full text of N.J. statutes and all bills,
available through the Internet. Outcome: The "New Jersey Internet Bill"
passed the New Jersey legislature with an amendment that prohibits the
imposition of fees for access to the information for N.J. residents. The
bill awaits the governor's signature. A follow-up letter from AALL was
sent to Governor Christine Whitman encouraging her to sign the bill.
(2) To Clerk-Administrator of the California Supreme Court commenting on
the proposed amendment to Rule 977 of the California Rules of Court and
the proposed prohibition against citation to any opinion of a federal or
state court available only in (a) a computer-based source of decisional
law or (b) a specialized or topical reporter. There has been no response
to the joint letter of the AALL GRC and the AALL Committee on Citation
Formats.
(3) To Telecommunications legislation conferees advising the conferees to
reject the vague "indecency" standard in the telecommunications bill in
favor of a "harmful to minors" standard. No response to the joint letter
from AALL, ARL, ALA and CNI. If (and when) the conferees agree on the final
version of the bill, the bill will go back to both houses of Congress for
approval. Library advocates continue to express concern about the "family
online empowerment" amendment which would make the display of indecent
material available over online services to anyone under the age of 18 a
criminal offense.
(4) To Administrator for Information Dissemination, Office of Patents and
Trademarks commending his office for utilizing the potential of the Internet
to make patent information broadly available to all Americans.
OTHER ISSUES:
GPO ACCESS: Beginning December 1, 1995, GPO ACCESS became available through
the Internet and at no charge to dial-in users. Instructions and information
were sent to depository libraries from GPO. Internet access is available at
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/ (from there connect directly to GPO or
one of the Gateways). Dial in users should use communications software and
modem to call 202-512-1661; type swais, then login as guest. Users can
telnet to swais.access.gpo.gov and login as guest.
LC SECURITY ISSUES: Hearings were held on security and financial management
issues relating to the Library of Congress. Much of the hearing was spent
discussing the 1991 GAO financial audit report and how LC has met these
recommendations. One representative suggested that the collection should be
"padlocked," but others disagreed and spoke about the need to provide access
to the public.
COPYRIGHT ISSUES: The AALL Copyright Committee and the Washington Office
are monitoring H.R. 989, the Copyright Extension Act, and H.R. 2441/S. 1284,
the NII Copyright Protection Act of 1995. H.R. 989 would give copyright
owners an additional 20 years' protection. At the urging of library
associations Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters drafted an amendment
which would provide libraries and educational institutions with an exemption
to the added 20 years duration of copyright.
A hearing was held on S. 1284/H.R. 2441 on 11/15/95. Among the witnesses
were Bruce Lehman, Commissioner of Patents, and Marybeth Peters, Register
of Copyrights. Mr. Lehman differentiated between the content of
communications, BBS's and public domain information and that which is
produced and sold on a commercial basis. Ms. Peters stressed the need to
balance the exclusive rights of creators and the needs of users, including
libraries. She stated that fair use should be affirmed strongly.
GILS: At a meeting of the GILS Board, created by the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995, GILS implementation was reviewed. Agencies were to have
completed by 12/31/95 an inventory of their (1) automated information
systems, (2) Privacy Act systems of records, and (3) locators covering
their information products. GPO demonstrated how agencies can disseminate
their GILS records through GPO ACCESS at minimal cost. The new GILS home
page is at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/gils/gils.html.
FTC PRIVACY INITIATIVE: The Federal Trade Commission has launched a
"privacy initiative" to investigate whether the innformation collected at
websites should be the subject of regulation by the FTC. To get background
on this effort, look at FTC Commissioner Varney's speech on electronic
commerce and privacy at the FTC site (www.ftc.gov.).
RAND STUDY: A Rand study released the week of 11/21/95 proposed a national
goal of email access for every American and urges the development of a
simple scheme to provide every U.S. resident with an email address. Copies
of the lengthy report can be obtained from the Rand website at http:/www.
rand.org., or for $20.00 each from the RAND Distribution Services, P.O.
Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138.
REMINDER: The AALL Government Relations Policy (revised July 1995) can be
found in the AALL Directory and Handbook 1995-1996 (p. 363).
(NOTE: If you would like additional information, contact Timothy Coggins,
GRC Member, at tcoggins@ua1vm.ua.edu or 205-348-5927, or Mary Alice Baish,
Assistant Washington Affairs Representative, at baish@law.georgetown.edu
or 202-662-9202.)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:09 PST