----------------------------Original message----------------------------
This comes from the American Association of
Law Libraries Washington DC Office, and
is a nice, succinct summary of why we should
individually let our House Representative
know of our opposition to H.S. 354.
Maryly Snow


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 09:50:22 -0500
From: Mary Alice Baish <<a href="/scripts/wa.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind0005%26L%3DARLIS-L%26E%3D7bit7BIT%26P%3D262259%26B%3D--%26T%3Dtext%252FplainTEXT%252FPLAIN%3B%2520charset%3DUS-ASCII%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a>>
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Subject: Opposition to H.R. 354

Dear Friends,

There has been a lull in activity on the two database
protection bills
this spring.  Staff from the Judiciary Committee (that
reported H.R. 354,
the "Collections of Information Antipiracy Act" which we
oppose) and the
Commerce Committee (that reported H.R. 1858, the "Consumer
and Investor
Access to Information Act of 1999" which we support) were
unable to reach
any compromise.  This was not at all surprising given the
very different
approaches taken in each bill.

Next week, 6,000 realtors will come to Washington for their legislative
day and they will be making a strong plea to Congress to
enact H.R. 354
this year to protect their online database.

The library and educational communities oppose H.R. 354
because it tilts
the historic balance between publishers or distributors of
information and
users in favor of industry -- and in ways that will harm the American
public and raise costs for our libraries.

ACTION:

Please call, fax, or e-mail your Representative between
today and Friday
and urge opposition to H.R. 354.  Tell your Representative
that H.R. 354
risks altering our nation's fundamental policy of open
access to
information. More specifically, H.R. 354:

*  defines many terms in overly broad and ambiguous
language;

* establishes a whole new legal protection regime for
collections of
factual information outside of copyright law;

* does NOT exclude primary legal materials (AALL's amendment
is in the
competing Commence Committee legislation, H.R. 1858, that we support);

* is overly restrictive of traditional scholarly
communication, and would
present new barriers to a wide range of currently reasonable
and customary
research and education activities;

* would give publishers of collections of information unprecedented
control over the downstream use of factual information;

* and contains language that could result in the perpetual
protection of a
database or collection of information, potentially
diminishing the public
domain.

FYI, the House switchboard number is 202-225-3121.  If you
prefer to send
a message to your Representative via fax or e-mail, please
be sure to
include AALL's Issue Brief on the Rule of Law at:
http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/aallwash/Isbraall.html

Also, please redistribute this alert to your Chapter and to
any other
listservs as appropriate.

As always, thanks very much for your support.  Let's prevent
a last minute
push in the House for H.R. 354 and kill it once and for all.
 --Mary Alice




=====================================
Mary Alice Baish
Associate Washington Affairs Representative
E.B. Williams Law Library
Georgetown University Law Center
111 G Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20001-1417
Voice:  202.662.9200
Fax:  202.662.9202
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Internet:  www.ll.georgetown.edu/aallwash

-------------------------------------------------------------
Private reply:         "Mary Alice Baish" <<a href="/scripts/wa.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind0005%26L%3DARLIS-L%26E%3D7bit7BIT%26P%3D262259%26B%3D--%26T%3Dtext%252FplainTEXT%252FPLAIN%3B%2520charset%3DUS-ASCII%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a>>
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