[This message was cross-posted to lawlib and AALL member listserv. Please
excuse the duplication.]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 29, 1999
CONTACT:
Frank Houdek, Chair
AALL Committee on Relations with Information Vendors
houdek @siu.edu
FAX: (618) 453-8788
Public Comment On FTC Guides
On March 18, 1999, the Federal Trade Commission issued a Request for Comment
Concerning the Guides for the Law Book Industry. See 64 Fed. Reg. 13369-70
(Mar. 18, 1999). The FTC is seeking comments on the overall costs and
benefits and the continuing need for its Guides, as part of the Commissions
systematic review of all current Commission regulations and guides. The
Request for Comment poses eight specific questions on which the FTC seeks
written public comment. See id. at 13370.
Given the importance of the Guides for the Law Book Industry (16 C.F.R. Part
256) to law librarians and the legal community generally, AALL will be
responding to the FTCs solicitation. The response will be prepared through
the joint efforts of the Committee on Relations with Information Vendors
(CRIV) and the Washington Affairs Office. To ensure that a full range of
views is taken into consideration as the AALL response is prepared, all
interested parties are invited to submit their thoughts on the FTC Guides to
CRIV. Submissions can be sent by e-mail (preferred) or fax to Frank Houdek,
Chair, AALL Committee on Relations with Information Vendors (contact
information provided below), or directly through the FTC Comment Box on
CRIVPage, the committees Web site
(<http://www.aallnet.org/committee/criv/>). Comments to CRIV must be
submitted no later than April 15, 1999 so that there is sufficient time to
prepare AALLs response by the FTCs deadline of May 17, 1999.
In addition to providing your thoughts on the Guides to AALL, CRIV
encourages interested individuals to respond directly to the FTC. As an
organization representing 5,000 legal information consumers, it is likely
that AALLs response will be given serious consideration by the FTC, but a
large number of individual responses will help to demonstrate the importance
of, and continuing need for, the Guides. Information on how to submit
comments to the Federal Trade Commission, either by mail or e-mail, is
provided in the Request for Comment at 64 Fed. Reg. 13369.
Those interested in learning more about the Guides for the Law Book Industry
are referred to a summary and analysis prepared by CRIV and available on
CRIVPage (<http://www.aallnet.org/committee/criv/ftc.htm.>), and to a letter
sent by AALL last July in response to an earlier FTC request for comments
concerning a proposed policy statement on the applicability of the Guides to
electronic media, available on AALLs Washington Affairs Online
(<http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/aallwash/lt070898.html>).
# # #
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:50:04 PST