Please take a moment to review the message forwarded below regarding the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Please also take time to send a short fax or email message to key people
in Congress. Members of the conference committee for this legislation
are listed at the bottom of the forwarded message.
Anne Klinefelter
Chair, AALL Copyright Committee
Acting Law Librarian and Associate Law Librarian
The University of Miami School of Law Library
1311 Miller Drive
Coral Gables, FL 33146
aklinefe@law.miami.edu
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 16:07:54 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Prue Adler <prue@arl.org>
> Subject: Copyright and IP - Immediate Assistance Requested (fwd)
>
> September 30, 1998
>
> TO: Directors of ARL Libraries
>
> FROM: Prue Adler
>
> RE: Update - Copyright and Intellectual Property -
> ****Immediate Assistance Requested****
>
> Members and staff of the House and Senate conference on the
> "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" (DMCA) are meeting to resolve the
> differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation.
> They hope to conclude their work within the next few days. This could be
> the last opportunity to influence this critically important legislation.
>
> Please contact your Senate delegation *again* and ask that they
> contact Sen. Hatch and other Senate conferees and ask that Title V,
> "Collections of Information Antipiracy Act," be deleted from the "Digital
> Millennium Copyright Act" and that no database legislation be included in
> the DMCA. There is not sufficient time to achieve a balanced database
> bill in the remaining days of the session.
>
> Last week, the Higher Education Alliance which includes AAU,
> NASULGC, ACE, ARL and others wrote to the conferees requesting that Title
> V be dropped from consideration. That letter is attached.
>
> Please let me know if there is additional information that I can
> provide. Thank you very much.
>
> Key talking points:
>
> o There has been no Senate consideration of this complex issue. No
> hearings have been conducted nor is there time to do so before the end of
> the session. The legislation potentially implicates every facet of
> electronic commerce, education, research, and public access to information
> through libraries, educational institutions, and the Internet.
>
> o A balanced and workable compromise on this issue is achievable if time
> is available to all interested parties to address critical concerns with
> the legislation as drafted. The Senate is to be commended for making many
> positive contributions to the WIPO bill but has yet had the opportunity to
> consider the database legislation. This legislation would undermine many
> of the positive accomplishments made by the Senate in the WIPO
> legislation.
>
> o In addition to many in the public and private sectors who have expressed
> concern or opposition to the legislation, the Department of Justice and
> the Federal Trade Commission have raised serious concerns regarding
> whether the legislation is constitutional and that there are serious
> anti-trust concerns with the bill.
> (<http://www.ftc.gov/os/1998/9809/antipirabli.htm>)
> (<http://www.acm.org/usacm/copyright/doj-hr2652-memo.html>) The
> Department of Commerce has also noted a number of significant concerns
> including that "certain aspects of [the Collections of Information
> Antipiracy Act] H.R. 2652 may increase transaction costs in data
> use."
>
> o This legislation could override over 200 years of copyright law to
> create a new property right for databases, extending legal protection to
> mere compilations of facts and potentially providing perpetual protection
> to some databases. In addition, the new rights conveyed to the producers
> of databases would greatly enhance existing information monopolies and
> create new monopolies by permitting the initial compiler of the database
> rights to control all downstream uses of any fraction of the original
> collection of facts, thus impeding innovation and research in the
> commercial and not-for-profit sectors.
>
> o Although protection is not extended to federal, state, or local
> government information, protection is available to "agents or licensee"
> that have "gathered, organized, or maintained," a government collection of
> information. As a consequence, there is a potentially huge problem of
> government information becoming tightly controlled by private companies.
>
> Background & Status
>
> o Legislation passed by the House over very substantial public and
> private sector objections, then linked at the last moment *WIPO* treaty
> package (Title V).
>
> o Substance of issue wholly unrelated to WIPO treaties or their
> implementation (WIPO delegates did not consider draft database treaty in
> Dec. 1996);
>
> o No comparable Senate bill introduced until mid-July; Judiciary
> hearing scheduled canceled.
>
> o An increasing number of private and not-for- profit organizations oppose
> and/ or are concerned with the legislation including the National Academy
> of Science, AAU, NASULGC, AAAS, MCI, AT&T, Information Technology
> Association of America, Dun&Bradstreet, Online Banking, Bloomberg
> Financial Markets, NEA, IEEE, American Historical Association, Charles
> Schwab& Co, and many more.
> ------------------------------------------------- September 25, 1998
>
> The Honorable Orrin G. Hatch
> United States Senate
> 131 Russell Senate Office Building
> Washington, DC 20510
>
> Dear Chairman Hatch:
>
> On behalf of the Higher Education Alliance for Information Technology, I
> write to convey our views on several provisions important to colleges and
> universities in the Conference Report on HR 2281, The Digital Millennium
> Copyright Act.
>
> First, we suggest that Title V of the House-passed Digital Millennium
> Copyright Act, the "Collections of Information Antipiracy Act of 1998" or
> any other forms of database protection be excluded from the Conference
> Report. Title V creates a new form of intellectual property protection
> for databases or collections of information. We are concerned this
> legislation, in its current form, would potentially hinder basic
> mechanisms of scientific and educational data exchange, increase costs for
> sharing of information among researchers and limit scientific innovation.
> Although we appreciate the improvements that have been made in recent
> drafts of this legislation, a number of serious problems remain.
>
> We thank the House and Senate members for their efforts in trying to find
> consensus among the key stakeholders on this legislation. A balanced
> outcome is ultimately achievable; however, there is not sufficient time to
> resolve these complicated issues during this session. Second, we ask that
> the Senate recede to the House on key provisions affecting the application
> of fair use and other current-law limitations and defenses to proprietary
> rights when circumventing technological protections to lawfully acquired
> copyright materials (section 1201 of HR 2281). We understand there is
> some debate over the locus of rulemaking pertaining to section 1201(c) and
> we are not taking a position in this matter. However, we hope the
> Conference Report will retain the key elements of the House provisions
> governing fair use and other exemptions contained in section 1201.
>
> Third, we request the Senate to recede to the House on exempting
> universities for liability over the infringements of faculty and students
> about which the university has no knowledge. We understand there are
> on-going negotiations concerning this provision section 512(c)(2) and we
> recommend that any final agreement among the stakeholders be incorporated
> into the Conference Report.
>
> As the Conferees deliberate on HR 2281, we hope you will give careful
> consideration to these issues important to colleges and universities.
> Thank you.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Graham Spanier
> President, The Pennsylvania State University and
> Chairman, The Higher Education Alliance for
> Information Technology
> THE HIGHER EDUCATION ALLIANCE FOR INFORMATION
> TECHNOLOGY
> American Association of Community Colleges
> American Association of State Colleges and Universities
> American Council on Education
> Association of American Universities
> National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
> National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges
> ALLIED ASSOCIATIONS
> Association of Research Libraries
> Educause
> University Continuing Education Association
> The Higher Education Alliance for Information Technology
> _____________________________________
> Members of the Conference Committee on DMCA:
>
> Senator Hatch of Utah
> Senator Leahy of Vermont
> Senator Thurmond of South Carolina
> Representative Hyde of Illinois
> Representative Coble of North Carolina
> Representative Goodlate of Virginia
> Representative Berman of California
> Representative Conyers of Michigan
> Representative Dingell of Michigan
> Representative Bliley of Virginia
> Representative Tauzin of Louisiana
> -----------
>
> Prue Adler, Assistant Executive Director
> Federal Relations and Information Policy
> Association of Research Libraries
> 21 Dupont Circle, N.W.
> Washington, D.C. 20036
> (202) 296-2296
> FAX: (202) 872-0884
> Internet: prue@arl.org
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