URGENT MESSAGE:
Below is an alert regarding the May 15 Mark-up of HR 2441. Please
post this text on your Web Sites and forward it to all interested parties.
Specific efforts should be made to have people in the districts of
members of the IP Subcommittee contact their representatives. A link to
the DFC Web Site can be made by linking your Web Site to
http://www.ari.net/dfc -- a thumbnail graphic for the link can be found at
http://www.ari.net/tlogo.gif
Suggested text for letters to Representatives will follow shortly.
**************************************************************
YOUR IMMEDIATE FAXES AND CALLS TO CONGRESS NEEDED TO
SLOW IMMINENT ACTION ON BADLY FLAWED CYBERSPACE
COPYRIGHT BILL
Congressional contacts urgently needed NO LATER THAN Tuesday,
May 14..................
Next Wednesday, May 15, the House Judiciary Committee's Intellectual
Property Subcommittee is scheduled to consider amendments to, and
vote on approval of HR 2441, the "National Information Infrastructure
Act of 1995." Such approval, if given, would give an important boost to
passage of a legislative package heavily backed by -- and tilted in favor
of -- the movie, recording, and publishing industries (and other large
"content providers"). If passed in its current form, the bill would:
*** make it a copyright violation to simply browse the Net without a
license from copyright owners;
*** subject computer system operators -- such as on-line services and
networks at schools and libraries -- to potentially crippling liability for the
copyright violations of their users, even if the operator;
*** cripple "distance education" efforts especially vital to rural
communities and the disabled; and
*** make it illegal to manufacture, import or distribute devices and
software (including computers and VCRs) needed by industry, schools
and libraries to make "fair use" of encrypted information by overruling
long-standing Supreme Court precedent.
WRITE AND CALL MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE JUDICIARY INTELLECTUAL
SUBCOMMITTEE AND KEY FULL COMMITTEE MEMBERS NOW (list and
information below)!!! Tell them that:
** These issues, and the healthy development of the Net are of critical
concern to you, AND
** The May 15 meeting of the Intellectual Property Subcommittee is **too
soon**. Congress should take the time needed to understand and
adequately deal with **all ** of the complicated issues raised by HR
2441 before it takes action.
For more information about the bill, the dangers it poses and the
constructive solutions offered, please see the DIGITAL FUTURE
COALITION Website at http://www.ari.net/dfc.
Please get your faxes and calls to the following members of Congress,
especially those Members who represent you, NO LATER THAN
Tuesday, May 14:
[DATE]
The Honorable {name}
United States House of Representative
__#__ ____ Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Representative__________:
I am writing today to ask that you do everything in your power to
assure that no action is
taken by the House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property on the "NII
Copyright
Protection Act of 1995" (HR 2441) until a broad consensus can be
reached on how to resolve a
number of issues of critical mportance to me and, in my view, the future
of the Internet. As I
understand it, this bill in its current form, would seriously undermine the
ability of businesses,
inventors, schools and librraies to make full use of the Internet's great
potential. Specifically,
H.R. 2441 would :
* make it a copyright violation to simply browse the Net without a license
from copyright
owners;
* subject computer system operators -- such as on-line services and
networks at schools and
libraries -- to potentially crippling liability for the copyright violations of
their users, even if the
operator has no knowledge of such violations;
* thwart "distance education" efforts especially vital to rural communities
and the disabled; and
* make it illegal to manufacture, import or distribute devices and
software (including computers
and VCRs) needed by industry, schools and libraries to make "fair use"
of encrypted information
by overruling long-standing Supreme Court precedent.
Please don't allow the fears of major copyright owning industries to
cripple the Internet
for the rest of America. I urge you and other members of the House
Judiciary Committee to take
the time necessary to understand and thoroughly debate all of the
proposed amendments to H.R.
2441, including those proposed by the Digital Future Coalition.
Thank you very much for helping make the most of new technology
and the Internet to
bring the benefits of information technology to all Americans, and
especially those in [INSERT
THE NAME OF THE DISTRICT/CITY].
Sincerely,
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:13 PST
