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Hello, ARLIS/NA Members & Colleagues --
*H.R.2281 vs H.R.3048?? NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT!!
Please note this time sensitive action alert to urge you to write or call your
Representative to advocate cosponsorship of the "Digital Era Copyright
Enhancement Act," H.R. 3048!
As you may be aware, landmark legislation to update the nation's
copyright laws for the digital age--including the Fair Use Doctrine--
is now pending in the House of Representatives. The ARLIS/NA Executive
Board has endorsed H.R. 3048, the Digital Era Copyright Enhancement Act,
introduced by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Tom Campbell (R-CA) and has
expressed serious concerns about H.R. 2281, The WIPO Copyright
Treaties Implementation Act.
You can learn more by reading the ALAWON Action Alert below and reviewing
the side-by-side comparison of these 2 acts available at the Digital
Future Coalition, DFC, website:
http://www.ari.net/dfc/issues/wipo/head2hd/head2hd.html
Make your voice count!! E-mail, postcards, letters, FAXES, telephone calls!
This is an all-out effort to let your representative(s) know your position
on these issues of great concern to you as professionals and as individuals!!
Katy Poole
Chair, Public Policy Committee
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Mon, 08 Jun 1998 14:53:03 -0400
From: ALAWASH E-MAIL (ALAWASH E-MAIL) <[log in to unmask]>
To: ALA Washington Office Newsline <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: ALAWON v7, n61 - ACTION FOR FAIR USE NEEDED BY FRIDAY
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ALAWON Volume 7, Number 61
ISSN 1069-7799 June 8, 1998
American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
In this issue: (260 lines)
MOMENTUM SWINGING IN HOUSE TOWARD REWORKING "WIPO" COPYRIGHT
LEGISLATION TO PROTECT FAIR USE; ACTION NEEDED BY THIS FRIDAY,
JUNE 12
_________________________________________________________________
MOMENTUM SWINGING IN HOUSE TOWARD REWORKING "WIPO" COPYRIGHT
LEGISLATION TO PROTECT FAIR USE; ACTION NEEDED BY THIS FRIDAY,
JUNE 12.
ACTION NEEDED: If fair use and other copyright exceptions are
finally to get the statutory protection that they need and
deserve in cyberspace, it is likely to be the House Commerce
Committee -- especially its Telecommunications Subcommittee
chaired by Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA) -- that will make the
necessary changes required in H.R. 2281, The WIPO Copyright
Treaties Implementation Act (see BACKGROUND below).
To that end, all ALA members and library supporters are urged --
NO LATER THAN THIS FRIDAY, JUNE 12 -- to contact Congress in
writing and by phone or fax in support of changes to H.R. 2281 to
protect "fair use," and in support of H.R. 3048, The Digital Era
Copyright Enhancement Act -- the library-friendly
"Boucher/Campbell" bill previously endorsed by ALA. Specifically:
1. EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THEIR CONSTITUENTS, please
contact Commerce Committee leaders Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-VA)
and John Dingell (D-MI), AND Telecommunications Subcommittee
leaders Reps. Billy Tauzin and Ed Markey (D-MA) to thank
them for holding Friday's (June 5) hearing (see HOUSE
HEARING below), their support of "balanced" copyright law in
general, and to STRONGLY URGE THEIR SPECIFIC SUPPORT FOR
RELATED AMENDMENTS TO H.R. 2281 to be offered by Rep. Rick
Boucher (D-VA) later this month (e.g., updating the Fair Use
and First Sale Doctrines);
Address Correspondence:
THE HONORABLE (FULL NAME)
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515
ST-DST PTY REPRESENTATIVE PHONE FAX
LA-3 R Billy Tauzin 202-225-4031 202-225-0563
MA-7 D Edward J. Markey 202-225-2836 N/A
VA-7 R Thomas J. Bliley 202-225-2815 202-225-0011
MI-16 D John D. Dingell 202-225-4071 N/A
2. Please also send a copy of your letter to your own
Representative -- ESPECIALLY IF THEY'RE ON THE ATTACHED LIST
OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS -- with an
additional note asking them to:
- COSPONSOR H.R. 3048 by Reps. Boucher and Campbell, AND
- OPPOSE any form of H.R. 2281 which does not contain
library-endorsed changes intended to assure that fair use
will fully apply in cyberspace; AND
3. IF YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IS ON THE ATTACHED LIST OF H.R. 3048
COSPONSORS, please thank him or her for their cosponsorship
and ask them, as well, to OPPOSE any form of H.R. 2281 which
does not contain library-endorsed changes intended to assure
that fair use will fully apply in cyberspace.
_________________________________________________________________
HOUSE COMMERCE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS
ST-DST PTY REPRESENTATIVE PHONE FAX
(use 202 area code)
CA-14 D Anna G. Eshoo 225-8104 225-8890
CA-27 R James E. Rogan 225-4176 225-5828
CA-47 R Christopher Cox 225-5611 225-9177
CO-6 R Dan Schaefer 225-7882 225-7885
FL-6 R Clifford B. Stearns 225-5744 225-3973
GA-9 R Nathan Deal 225-5211 225-8272
IL-1 D Bobby L. Rush 225-4372 226-0333
IL-14 R J. Dennis Hastert 225-2976 225-0697
IL-20 R John M. Shimkus 225-5271 225-5880
LA-3 R Billy Tauzin, Chair 225-4031 225-0563
MD-4 D Albert R. Wynn 225-8699 225-8714
MA-7 D Edward J. Markey, Rnk. Mem. 225-2836 N/A
MI-6 R Frederick S. Upton 225-3761 225-4986
MI-16 D John D. Dingell 225-4071 N/A
MO-5 D Karen McCarthy 225-4535 225-4403
NY-7 D Thomas J. Manton 225-3965 225-1909
NY-17 D Eliot L. Engel 225-2464 225-5513
OH-4 R Michael G. Oxley 225-2676 N/A
OH-5 R Paul E. Gillmor 225-6405 225-1985
OH-14 D Thomas C. Sawyer 225-5231 225-5278
OK-1 R Steve Largent 225-2211 225-9187
PA-4 D Ron Klink 225-2565 226-2274
TN-6 D Bart Gordon 225-4231 225-6887
TX-6 R Joe Barton 225-2002 225-3052
TX-29 D Gene Green 225-1688 225-9903
VA-7 R Thomas J. Bliley 225-2815 225-0011
VA-9 D Rick Boucher 225-3861 225-0442
WA-1 R Rick White 225-6311 225-3524
WI-2 R Scott L. Klug 225-2906 225-6942
_________________________________________________________________
CURRENT CO-SPONSORS OF H.R. 3048
ST-DST PTY REPRESENTATIVE PHONE FAX
(use 202 area code)
CA-6 D Lynn C. Woolsey 225-5161 225-5163
CA-12 D Tom Lantos 225-3531 225-7900
CA-15 R Tom Campbell 225-2631 225-6788
CA-31 D Matthew G. Martinez 225-5464 225-5467
CA-34 D Esteban Torres 225-5256 225-9711
CA-45 R Dana Rohrabacher 225-2415 225-0145
CA-46 D Loretta Sanchez 225-2965 225-5859
CA-49 R Brian P. Bilbray 225-2040 225-2948
CO-2 D David E. Skaggs 225-2161 226-3806
CO-6 R Dan Schaefer 225-7882 225-7885
CT-4 R Christopher Shays 225-5541 225-9629
CT-5 D James H. Maloney 225-3822 225-5746
DE-1 R Michael N. Castle 225-4165 225-2291
FL-3 D Corrine Brown 225-0123 225-2256
FL-5 D Karen L. Thurman 225-1002 226-0329
GA-10 R Charles W. Norwood 225-4101 225-0279
IL-5 D Rod R. Blagojevich 225-4061 225-5603
IL-17 D Lane Evans 225-5905 225-5396
MD-8 R Constance A. Morella 225-5341 225-1389
MA-2 D Richard E. Neal 225-5601 225-8112
MI-9 D Dale E. Kildee 225-3611 225-6393
MN-3 R Jim Ramstad 225-2871 225-6351
MN-7 D Collin C. Peterson 225-2165 225-1593
MS-1 R Roger F. Wicker 225-4306 225-3549
MO-7 R Roy Blunt 225-6536 225-5604
NJ-6 D Frank Pallone 225-4671 225-9665
NY-10 D Edolphus Towns 225-5936 225-1018
NY-11 D Major R. Owens 225-6231 226-0112
NY-25 R James T. Walsh 225-3701 225-4042
NC-2 D Bob Etheridge 225-4531 225-5662
OH-10 D Dennis J. Kucinich 225-5871 225-5745
OH-13 D Sherrod Brown 225-3401 225-2266
OH-19 R Steve C. LaTourette 225-5731 225-3307
OR-1 D Elizabeth Furse 225-0855 225-9497
OR-3 D Earl Blumenauer 225-4811 225-8941
OR-4 D Peter A. DeFazio 225-6416 226-3502
PA-14 D William J. Coyne 225-2301 225-1844
PA-15 D Paul McHale 225-6411 225-5320
SC-5 D John M. Spratt 225-5501 225-0464
SC-6 D James E. Clyburn 225-3315 225-2313
TN-2 R John J. Duncan 225-5435 225-6440
TX-1 D Max Sandlin 225-3035 225-5866
TX-4 D Ralph M. Hall 225-6673 225-3332
VA-2 D Owen B. Pickett 225-4215 225-4218
VA-9 D Rick Boucher 225-3861 225-0442
WA-7 D Jim McDermott 225-3106
WV-3 D Nick J. Rahall 225-3452 225-9061
WI-2 R Scott L. Klug 225-2906 225-6942
_________________________________________________________________
BACKGROUND: In recent weeks, ALA, its fellow library
associations, and the dozens of other private and public sector
members of the Digital Future Coalition have fought hard -- but
unsuccessfully -- to produce fair use-friendly changes in major
new copyright legislation to implement the 1996 World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.
First, the House Judiciary Committee approved H.R. 2281, The WIPO
Copyright Treaties Implementation Act, in a form perhaps intended
to protect fair use in the digital environment but which --
according to the Register of Copyrights -- fails to do so as
written. The full Senate followed suit soon afterwards
(improving the House bill somewhat by enabling digital
preservation and commissioning a study of distance educators'
needs), adopting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, (S. 2037),
by a vote of 99-0.
HOUSE HEARING: Fortunately, however, the story is far from over.
On Friday, June 5 the House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on
Telecommunications -- chaired by Rep. Billy Tauzin -- met to
consider H.R. 2281, particularly its impact on fair use and the
many educational and commercial activities now legal that would
be criminalized by the bill. In a session extraordinarily well
attended by Members, the Subcommittee heard from a dozen
witnesses, the majority of whom were highly critical of H.R.
2281's overreaching prohibition on the merely gaining "access"
to any information that had been "wrapped" by its owner in
protective digital coding . . . even if such access were achieved
solely to make lawful us of the underlying material.
Testifying on behalf of the AALL, ALA, ARL, MLA and SLA, Prof.
Robert Oakley, library director of the Georgetown University Law
Center, emphasized that:
"H.R. 2281, as drafted, would grant copyright owners a
new and unrestricted exclusive right to control access
to information in digital works which could negate one
of the most basic principles that has made the U.S. so
clearly a leader in intellectual creativity,
innovation, and commerce -- the ability to gain access
to information in published or publicly available
works. . . . By access I mean the right to read and,
even more simply, the right to browse published works.
Taken another step, it means the right to use works in
ways currently allowed by exemptions and limitations in
copyright -- expressly crafted by Congress -- to permit
fair use, use for library preservation, and use in
classroom teaching."
This central theme also was underscored by several other
witnesses. Prof. Oakley and others strongly urged the
Subcommittee to make the changes in H.R. 2281 necessary to
conform its actual language to the intent of its drafters.
Specifically, they supported proposed amendments by H.R. 3048
co-author Rep. Rick Boucher to make the "circumvention" of a digital
wrapper to gain "access" to copyrighted material an offense only
when such access results in "copyright infringement": not when
undertaken to make fair use (or other legal use) of that
material.
MESSAGE RECEIVED: This message, often and strongly made at the
June 5 hearing, clearly was well received and fully appreciated,
particularly by the leadership of the Subcommittee and the full
House Commerce Committee itself. Commerce Committee Chairman
Thomas Bliley and Ranking Member John Dingell also both attended
and made opening statements indicating that changes in H.R. 2281
might well be necessary to assure that it did not impede commerce
by affording some information owners excessive control over their
product to the detriment of other businesses, students and
library users.
The Subcommittee's leaders struck the same chords in their
opening statements and many questions of the witness panel.
Indeed, Subcommittee Chairman Tauzin riveted the audience with
his obvious affection and appreciation for the role of libraries,
and heartfelt description of how he "grew up in a bookmobile" to
which his mother took him "every Tuesday" throughout his
childhood in Louisiana's rural bayou country. Subcommittee
Chairman Tauzin made clear that he didn't think that legislation
should proceed until the Subcommittee was certain that the bill
did no violence to fair use and the continued availability of no-fee
library access to (and use of) information that it affords.
Ranking Democrat Ed Markey, focussing on the needs of high-tech
companies in his own district, concurred with Chairman Tauzin.
_________________________________________________________________
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