Subject: (Fwd) NCC report on copyright news [from H-Net@h-net.msu.edu]
From: ODI LIBRARY (library@odi.org.uk)
Date: ma 18 syys 2000 - 10:37:53 EEST
Thought the following might be of interest to those not subscribed to
cn-copyright mailing list.
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 13:18:06 -0600 (CST)
Reply-to: cni-copyright@cni.org
From: "H-Net Central [Richard Jensen, Executive Director]" <H_NET_DIR@APSU01.APSU.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list <cni-copyright@cni.org>
Subject: NCC report on copyright news [from H-Net@h-net.msu.edu]
NCC Washington Update, vol. 2, # 29, September 12, 1996
by Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating
Committee for the Promotion of History <pagem@capaccess.org>
1. National Archives' FY'97 Appropriations
2. Update on Copyright Legislation
3. Copyright Conference on Fair Use
[snip]
2. Update on Copyright Legislation -- Despite a number of hearings by
this Congress, indications are that action is stalled on both the
copyright extension legislation, HR989 and S483, and the National
Information Infrastructure Copyright Protection Act, HR2441 and S1284,
legislation to adapt copyright law to the digital, networked environment
of the information highway. One of the thorniest and unresolved problems
in the cyberspace legislation was over who would be liable when
copyrighted products are illegally copied. Some, however, felt that
legislation on this was unnecessary since laws are currently in place
that adequately protect copyrighted works in the digital environment.
The copyright debate has now shifted to S1961, the Omnibus Patent Act of
1996, which was introduced by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) on July 16 and
which calls for the creation of a U.S. Intellectual Property Organization
in the executive branch. The Patent and Trademark Office, which is in the
Commerce Department (an executive branch agency), and the Copyright
Office, which is in the Library of Congress (a legislative branch agency),
would be merged to form the new executive branch agency. In introducing
this bill Hatch stated: " Under current practice, the role of the
Copyright Office in international policy formulation has diminished.
Under this bill, with the elimination of the bifurcation of intellectual
property policy between the legislative and the executive branches, it is
likely that its role would be enhanced."
The registration of copyright, which requires the deposit of two copies of
the work with the Copyright Office, has played a major role in building
the Library's collection. While Hatch claims that "this bill makes no
change in the deposit requirement," there is concern about the adverse
affects this legislation could have on the Library's collection
development which is intertwined with the work of the Copyright Office.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on S1961, the
Omnibus Patent Act, for September 18 at 10 am.
3. Copyright Conference on Fair Use - On September 6 the Conference on
Fair Use (CONFU) met to continue its work toward developing guidelines for
"fair use" in educational and library settings for the electronic use of
copyrighted material. Bruce Lehman, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and
Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, addressed the group. Lehman
commended CONFU on its work and stressed how important "fair use" in the
digital environment is to many of the Administration's educational
initiatives. In response to a question about pending international
negotiations and "fair use," Lehman stressed that the U.S. would never
consent to an international agreement that would require our giving up
"fair use." He noted that it took 200 years before "fair use" became a
part of U.S. law and that the international community is evolving toward
our view of "fair use."
Having met regularly for the last two years, CONFU continued at this
meeting to seek consensus among publishers, librarians, scholars, and
teachers for guidelines that address "fair use." Work is now being
completed on guidelines on multimedia classroom use, distance learning,
visual image archives, and scenarios on the use of copyrighted computer
programs (software) in libraries. Throughout the process, there have been
many who felt that the various guidelines being development were too
restrictive or not restrictive enough. To the extent that a consensus
can be reached, it will be the result of considerable compromise.
However, it is unclear at this point whether enough organizations from
both the publisher and the library communities will endorse the
individual guidelines to justify the conclusion that there is a consensus
of support for the guidelines.
The guidelines on electronic library reserves which have the support of
the American Council of Learned Societies, the Association of American
University Presses, as well as a number of library associations, was
strongly opposed by the Association of American Publishers and other
publisher organizations. Thus it appears that there will not be a
consensus of the CONFU participating organizations for supporting the
electronic reserves guidelines. There were also strongly differing views
on the topic of digital transmission of Interlibrary Loan material.
Despite the seemingly fundamental different views on interlibrary loan, a
small working group will meet again prior to the next CONFU meeting to see
if some understandings can be reached.
As CONFU's work nears completion, the group decided to hold the final
meeting in November. At that time there will be discussion of a draft of
CONFU's "Final Report" and of plans for submitting the final drafts of the
guidelines to organizations for their endorsements.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NCC invites you to redistribute the NCC Washington Updates.
A complete backfile of these reports is maintained by H-Net.
See World Wide Web: http://h-net.msu.edu/~ncc/
* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Mark Perkins, RRMG Librarian
ODI Library, Regents College
Inner Circle, Regents Park, London NW14NS. UK
TEL: +44 (0)171-487-7611 FAX: +44 (0)171-487-7590
EMAIL: library@odi.org.uk
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