Update on US Copyright Law amendments


Subject: Update on US Copyright Law amendments
From: Emanuella Giavarra (ecup.secr@dial.pipex.com)
Date: ma 06 huhti  1998 - 20:36:12 EEST


Subject:
        ALAWON v7, n37 - ACTION NEEDED: COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION
  Date:
        Fri, 03 Apr 1998 17:42:54 -0400
  From:
        ALAWASH E-MAIL (ALAWASH E-MAIL) <ALAWASH@ALAWASH.ORG>
    To:
        ALA Washington Office Newsline <ala-wo@ala1.ala.org>

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ALAWON Volume 7, Number 37
ISSN 1069-7799 April 3, 1998

     American Library Association Washington Office Newsline

In this issue: (193 lines)

ACTION NEEDED: JUDICIARY COMMITTEES ADVANCE FLAWED AND INCOMPLETE
COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION; COSPONSORSHIP OF H.R. 3048 AND S. 1146
NEEDED
_________________________________________________________________

ACTION NEEDED: JUDICIARY COMMITTEES ADVANCE FLAWED AND INCOMPLETE
COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION; COSPONSORSHIP OF H.R. 3048 AND S. 1146
NEEDED

The Judiciary Committees of both the House and Senate took steps
this week to advance legislation to update the nation's copyright
laws to address the challenges of cyberspace.

On April 1 the House Judiciary Committee voted to report out a
new substitute for H.R. 2281, WIPO Copyright Treaties
Implementation Act, which included two main parts:

     (1) a minimally amended version of the original
     Administration legislation opposed by ALA and the Digital
     Future Coalition (DFC) which would bar the manufacture of
     multiple-purpose electronic devices needed by libraries to
     afford the public access to encrypted information; and

     (2) a version of H.R. 3209, a bill to limit the copyright
     liability of online service providers, amended to reflect
     parts of an agreement reached Wednesday morning between
     major content owners, phone companies and commercial service
     providers. Representatives of libraries and other parts of
     the public sector were excluded from this latest and most
     important round of formal negotiations.

Significantly, the House Committee rejected by voice vote a half-dozen
amendments by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) which would have
lessened the new bill's adverse effects on public access to
information and on the ability to electronically obtain and use
works not protected by copyright or in the public domain. One of
those amendments was the text of Rep. Boucher's own excellent
bill.

Less than 24 hours after the House Committee meeting, the Senate
Judiciary Committee discussed the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (not yet introduced). Like the House bill, this new
legislation also contains two main titles: one substantially
identical to the House version of the Administration's seriously
deficient bill, and the second incorporating all of the terms of
the liability limiting agreement reached between commercial
content owners and online service providers.

Importantly, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act contains none
of the provisions and takes none of the more moderate approaches
to rebalancing the Copyright Act for the digital age contained in
S. 1146, Sen. John Ashcroft's (R-MO) Digital Copyright
Clarification and Technology Education, a bill also strongly
endorsed by ALA and the DFC. It is unclear whether the
discrepancy between the bills will be addressed when the Senate
Committee meets again to actively debate and modify the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act.

ACTION NEEDED:

ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO COSPONSOR H.R. 3048: If your
Representative is listed below, please take a moment to thank
them. If you don't see your Representative's name, please ask
them now to cosponsor H.R. 3048, the Digital Copyright Era
Enhancement Act, and to support sponsors Reps. Boucher and Tom
Campbell (R-CA) when this matter comes to the House floor this
spring.

H.R. 3048 is strongly supported by ALA, the DFC, and librarians
nationwide who have been calling and faxing their Representative
seeking support for this landmark bill. Those efforts are paying
off, so please keep those contacts coming. More than 30
Representatives from both parties and every sector of the
political spectrum now cosponsor H.R. 3048.

ASK YOUR SENATORS TO COSPONSOR S. 1146: Library supporters,
especially those represented by members of the Senate Judiciary
Committee listed below, are also urged to ask their Senators to
cosponsor Sen. Ashcroft's S. 1146, a bill to revise the Copyright
Act which appropriately balances the protection of intellectual
property and the provision of library and other access to it.

The U.S. Capitol Switchboard phone number is 202-224-3121.

CURRENT COSPONSORS OF H.R. 3048 (as of 4/3/98)

CA-6 D Lynn C. Woolsey
CA-15 R Tom Campbell
CA-31 D Matthew G. Martinez
CA-34 D Esteban Torres
CA-45 R Dana Rohrabacher
CA-49 R Brian P. Bilbray
CT-4 R Christopher Shays
CT-5 D James H. Maloney
DE-1 R Michael N. Castle
FL-3 D Corrine Brown
GA-10 R Charles W. Norwood
IL-5 D Rod R. Blagojevich
IL-17 D Lane Evans
MD-8 R Constance A. Morella
MA-2 D Richard E. Neal
MN-3 R Jim Ramstad
MN-7 D Collin C. Peterson
MS-1 R Roger F. Wicker
NC-2 D Bob Etheridge
NJ-6 D Frank Pallone
NY-10 D Edolphus Towns
NY-11 D Major R. Owens
NY-25 R James T. Walsh
OH-13 D Sherrod Brown
OH-19 R Steve C. LaTourette
OR-4 D Peter A. DeFazio
PA-14 D William J. Coyne
SC-6 D James E. Clyburn
TX-1 D Max Sandlin
VA-2 D Owen B. Pickett
VA-9 D Rick Boucher
WV-3 D Nick J. Rahall
WI-2 R Scott L. Klug

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MEMBERS
(Constituents of these members are especially urged to contact them
now!)
                   
  ST-DST PTY REPRESENTATIVE PHONE FAX
                                             (Use 202 area code)
  AR-3 R Asa Hutchinson 225-4301 225-5713
  CA-16 D Zoe Lofgren 225-3072 225-3336
  CA-23 R Elton Gallegly 225-5811 225-1100
  CA-26 D Howard L. Berman 225-4695 225-5279
  CA-27 R James E. Rogan 225-4176 225-5828
  CA-35 D Maxine Waters 225-2201 225-7854
  FL-8 R Bill McCollum 225-2176 225-0999
  FL-12 R Charles T. Canady 225-1252 225-2279
  FL-19 D Robert Wexler 225-3001 225-5974
  GA-7 R Bob Barr 225-2931 225-2944
  IL-6 R Henry J. Hyde, Chair 225-4561 225-1166
  IN-5 R Stephen E. Buyer 225-5037 225-2267
  IN-7 R Edward A. Pease 225-5805 225-1649
  MA-4 D Barney Frank 225-5931 225-0182
  MA-5 D Martin T. Meehan 225-3411 226-0771
  MA-10 D William D. Delahunt 225-3111 225-5658
  MI-14 D John Conyers, Jr., Rnk. Dem. 225-5126 225-0072
  NJ-9 D Steve R. Rothman 225-5061 225-5851
  NM-1 R Steven H. Schiff 225-6316 225-4975
  NY-8 D Jerrold Nadler 225-5635 225-6923
  NY-9 D Charles E. Schumer 225-6616 225-4183
  NC-6 R Howard Coble 225-3065 225-8611
  NC-12 D Melvin L. Watt 225-1510 225-1512
  OH-1 R Steve Chabot 225-2216 225-3012
  PA-17 R George W. Gekas 225-4315 225-8440
  SC-4 R Robert D. Inglis 225-6030 226-1177
  TN-1 R William L. Jenkins 225-6356 225-5714
  TN-7 R Edward G. Bryant 225-2811 225-2989
  TX-18 D Sheila Jackson Lee 225-3816 225-3317
  TX-21 R Lamar S. Smith 225-4236 225-8628
  UT-3 R Christopher B. Cannon 225-7751 225-5629
  VA-3 D Robert C. Scott 225-8351 225-8354
  VA-6 R Bob Goodlatte 225-5431 225-9681
 *VA-9 D Rick Boucher 225-3861 225-0442
  WI-9 R James Sensenbrenner, Jr. 225-5101 225-3190

*Rep. Boucher (D-VA) is the author of H.R. 3048

_________________________________________________________________

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