ALA's Database altert

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Regarding the database legislation

------------
Subject: FYI: Latest Copyright Alert
   Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 12:17:51 -0400
  From: "Adam Eisgrau" <AME@alawash.org>
    To: 
       "Digital Future Coalition Discussion List"
<dfclist@listserv.alawash.org>



COPYRIGHT CLASHES LIKELY TO DEFINE FINAL WEEKS OF 105TH CONGRESS;
LETTERS TO SENATORS ON DATABASE AND WIPO BILLS NEEDED NOW.

ACTION: Please write or call your Senators this week to urge: (1) no
Senate action on controversial database protection legislation; and (2)
strong support for including the House*s version of fair use protection
in any final version of WIPO copyright treaty legislation.

Please write to both of your Senators this week in support of preserving
the critical balance between protecting information and affording
reasonable access to it as key Committees struggle with two
*intellectual property* bills: the *Collections of Information
Antipiracy Act* (S. 2291/H.R. 2652) and the *Digital Millennium
Copyright Act* (H.R. 2281).   

MESSAGES: Please ask both of your Senators to write, and speak
personally, to Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and
Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-VT) requesting that they: 

(1) DEFER Senate action until the next Congress on any special interest
database protection legislation, including the *Collections of
Information Antipiracy Act* (S. 2291/H.R. 2652), AND that they remove
this controversial legislation from the *Digital Millennium Copyright
Act* (H.R. 2281) with which it was merged by the House early last month
(see ALAWON V. 7, NO. 91 of August 6, 1998); AND  

(2) NOT accept any version of *fair use* protection weaker than that
adopted in the House version of H.R. 2281 when the House and Senate meet
to reconcile their different versions of the *Digital Millennium
Copyright Act* in the next few weeks.

*** SPECIAL NOTE:  Because of their leadership roles, it*s especially
important that: 

. . . UTAH and VERMONT residents write directly to Mr. Hatch and
      Mr. Leahy; and

. . . MISSISSIPPI and OKLAHOMA residents contact Senate Majority
      Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) and Deputy Leader Don Nickels 
      (R-OK); and

. . . ARIZONA and SOUTH CAROLINA residents reach Sens. John
      McCain (R-AZ) and Ernest Hollings (D-SC).  

Letters may be addressed to your Senator (Hon. __full name__); United
States Senate; Washington, DC 20510.
   
BACKGROUND:

With less than a calendar month, and even fewer *legislative days*,
remaining in the 105th Congress, now is the time that the wheels within
the wheels either mesh to produce legislation that gets to the
President*s desk . . . or don*t.  ALA, together with its many partners
in the library community and the Digital Future Coalition, is fighting
hard to assure that the last minute deals that are the hallmark of this
end-of-Congress environment don*t reverse progress made to date in
protecting public access to information or catapult unripe proposals
into law which could jeopardize such access.  Both of these dangerous
scenarios could easily become reality with respect to the major
intellectual property legislation on which libraries have worked so hard
in this Congress.  That*s why your letters now are so critical.
The details of database protection and WIPO treaty implementation
legislation can be complicated, but the key concepts underlying
librarians* work on these bill are as familiar as common sense: 

(1) DATABASE:  Both the Departments of Commerce and Justice have
submitted analyses to Congress expressing major concerns, including
potential unconstitutionality, with the *Collections of Information
Antipiracy Act* (S. 2291/H.R. 2652). This database protection
legislation could radically restrict access to non-copyrightable
information.  Thus, it should not be rushed through Congress at the last
minute without Senate hearings, whether as a separate bill or as part
of  the *Digital Millennium Copyright Act* (H.R. 2281) to implement the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) copyright treaties with
which it was merged by the House in August.  ALA joined 37 other public
and private sector organizations and companies that wrote to Judiciary
Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch last week asking him to defer action on
this controversial measure until the next Congress.  A copy of this
joint letter is posted on the Internet at
http://www.dfc.org/issues/database/jntltr/jntltr.html;

(2) WIPO:  Legislation to implement the WIPO treaties was first passed
by the Senate as S. 2037 without any provision for the future protection
of fair use and various other kinds of lawful access to information now
afforded by the Copyright Act.  In the House, however, efforts by key
members of the Commerce Committee succeeded in writing basic access
safeguards into H.R. 2281 as approved by the full House in early
August.  When the Senate and House meet to determine the final form of
WIPO treaty legislation, as they will soon, the House bill*s protections
for fair use and other kinds of lawful access to information must be
incorporated in the finished product.

FURTHER DETAILS: For detailed assessments of the pending database
legislation (S. 2291/H.R. 2652) and of the pluses and minuses of the
version of the WIPO treaty bill adopted by the House in early August
(H.R. 2281) please point your browser to http://www.dfc.org or, as
always, contact Adam Eisgrau of the ALA Washington Office. 
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