----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Mail*Link(r) SMTP FWD>URGENT: DFC ACTION ALERT
ALERT!! YOUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED AT THIS CRITICAL TIME!
Below is information from the Digital Future Coalition concerning the 22
November 1996 deadline to submit remarks to the Patents and Trademarks
organization concerning the draft World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) proposals.
Copies of the full text of the proposed treaties are available electronically
through the World Intellectual Property Organization <http://www.wipo.org>.
Additional information is also available through the DFC web site at:
<http://www.dfc.org/dfc/>.
Letters can be submitted electronically to: Keith Kupferschmid of the Patents
and Trademarks Office at [log in to unmask] Please take a few minutes to
draft a letter supporting the DFC position on these proposals. These proposals
as they stand could create laws which will affect our ability to carry out the
research and educational agendas of our institutions. Your support is
needed-- write today!
ARLIS/NA, Public Policy Committee
Katherine Poole, Co-Chair
[log in to unmask]
Hinda Sklar, Co-Chair
[log in to unmask]
--------------------------------------
Date: 11/15/96 11:26 AM
From: Digital Future Coalition
Attached is an outline and action alert for a submission to the PTO for
remarks regarding the draft WIPO proposals. Please the the DFC site for
additional information (http://www.dfc.org/dfc/) If you have any
questions, please call Ephraim Cohen at (202) 628-6048 or Peter Jaszi
at (202) 274-4216. Thank you.
Outline:
1) Statement of organization's mission
2) Statement of pending proposals most relevant
3) Statement of concern regarding impact of mission and activities
(e.g., concerns about effect on distance education, availablity of useful
consuemr eletronic technologies, effects increased usage fees,
privace)
4) Endorsement of WIPO consensus building process and encourage
that consensus be struck
5) Conclusion -- If there is no consensus, the United States should
neither endorse proposals which could adversely affect U.S. law and
should urge WIPO to defer action on items with no consensus.
Action Alert:
DFC ACTIVITIES HELP OPEN INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT TREATY
PROPOSALS TO RARE ROUND OF PUBLIC COMMENTS; FILE NOW!!!
BROAD REDISTRIBUTION OF THIS NOTICE, AND SUBMISSION OF
COMMENTS, STRONGLY ENCOURAGED; COPYRIGHT EXPERTISE NOT
REQUIRED.
ALERT!!! All parties interested in this issue are strongly urged to share
this bulletin widely and to take advantage of the opportunity announced
in the Federal Register of October 17 (pg. 54159) to comment on
pending international treaty proposals now supported by the Executive
Branch. If adopted as written this coming December, the three
proposed treaties could severely limit Congress' ability to preserve Fair
Use, facilitate browsing on the Internet, foster the use of computers in
"distance education," and encourage basic scientific and academic
research.
Please read on for more information, where to obtain easily understood
analyses of the pending proposals and their text, and how to let the
Executive Branch know before Nov. 22 that librarians and educators
don't want Congress' flexibility to keep American copyright law fairly
balanced destroyed or diminished by the premature adoption of
international treaties which remain highly controversial in both the public
and private sectors here at home.
ACTION: ON OR BEFORE NOVEMBER 22, 1996 write AND e-mail the
United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) your (or your
institution's) support for building a domestic consensus on how best to
balance copyright law in the digital age and your opposition to
prematurely changing international law in any way that risks reducing
Congress' flexibility to fully debate and adopt policy that works for
business and the public in this complicated area of the law.
The Digital Future Coalition and many others in industry, academia and
the private sector have worked intensively for the past year to
encourage the Administration to take a fresh look at what the United
States' official position should be in international copyright treaty
negotiations to convene in Geneva early this December. The recent
Federal Register request for comments signals the beginning of that
process. With negotiations set to begin on December 2, now is the time
for businesses, librarians, educators, and consumers to make clear
their commitment to Fair Use, balanced copyright law and full
Congressional latitude to build consensus on these critical copyright and
related issues. Details on how to find more information and to file your
comments follows...
Tell the PTO that adoption of the pending treaty proposals presents
precisely that kind of risk, and that they should be amended in a broadly
supported manner to eliminate that risk. If such amendments are not
possible, the three treaty proposals should be thoroughly discussed in
Geneva this December, but action on their sections dealing with digital
technology should be deferred until Congress (and the world) can
better understand and define the proposals' potential impact on
business, education and the public at large.
DETAILS: COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT TREATIES MUST BE
RECEIVED NO LATER THAN NOVEMBER 22, 1996. For additional
analysis and background information, please access the Digital Future
Coalition's page on the World Wide Web at <http://www.dfc.org/dfc/> or
202-628-6048. Copies of the full text of the proposed treaties are
available electronically through the World Intellectual Property
Organization <http://www.wipo.org>.
Please submit all comments both by mail and electronically, if possible.
Comments may be mailed to: Ms. Carmen Guzman Lowrey, Associate
Commissioner for Governmental and International Affairs, Commissioner
of Patents and Trademarks, Box 4, Patent and Trademark Office,
Washington, D.C. 20231. Electronic submissions should be sent to Mr.
Keith Kupferschmid at [log in to unmask]
For those in or near Washington, a public briefing on the proposed
treaties will be held on November 12, 1996, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in
Marriott's Crystal Forum, a part of the Crystal City Marriott Hotel, 1999
Jefferson Davis Hwy., Arlington, VA. Mr. Jukka Liedes of Finland,
Chairman of WIPO's Committee of Experts, will discuss the texts and
answer questions. It is not necessary to register for the public briefing.
A transcript of the briefing will be made available at the Patent and
Trademark Office's Web site at <http://www.uspto.gov>.
BACKGROUND: The Digital Future Coalition has taken a lead role in
educating policy makers in Congress and the Executive Branch about
the sweeping implications of recent proposals to update copyright law
for the digital age. In the just-concluded 104th Congress, those efforts
were rewarded with Congress' recognition that it would have been
premature to pass the "National Information Infrastructure Copyright
Protection Act" (the "NII Legislation") [S. 1284/H.R. 2441] in its original
form and that action on any such bill should be deferred until next year.
Members of the DFC also have been concerned from the outset of the
Congressional debate in September of 1995, however, that proposals
by the U.S. and other nations to make substantial changes in
international law similar to those proposed in the NII Legislation could
restrict the scope of Congressional consideration next year and force
the adoption of new laws not previously debated. If adopted, the DFC
believes, such treaties could seriously undermine Congress' ability to
preserve Fair Use, hinder efforts to use digital technology for library
preservation efforts, cripple "distance education" (also called
"asynchronous learning"), and bar the manufacture of devices that
facilitate these critical activities.
Other new international proposals, if adopted, would require Congress
to enact an entirely new legal regime -- separate from and in addition to
copyright protection -- for databases now outside the scope of
copyright, such as compiled raw scientific data and telephone "White
Pages." Moreover, under this database proposal never scrutinized by
Congress, government information and other public domain material
could be placed practically or financially off limits to entrepreneurs,
researchers, scholars, students and the public at large.
The present Administration has been a source and strong proponent not
only of the NII Legislation (which it authored), but of the three pending
international treaty proposals before the World Intellectual Property
Organization ("WIPO"), an arm of the United Nations . WIPO's more than
100 member nations will meet in Geneva from December 2 through 20,
1996 in a formal Diplomatic Conference to determine whether the
portions of these copyright treaties dealing with digital technology (and
the proposed database agreement) are ripe for international adoption
and, if so, in what form. The Patent and Trademark Office's recent
request for comments in the Federal Register, however, confirms that
the Administration is comprehensively reexamining whether and how
United States negotiators should proceed.
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From: Digital Future Coalition <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Digital Future Coalition Discussion List" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: URGENT: DFC ACTION ALERT
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 11:22:29 -0500
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