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arl-announce: ARL Announces: Steps to Influence Copyright Legislation Reform

arl-announce: ARL Announces: Steps to Influence Copyright Legislation Reform

ARL Announces: Steps to Influence Copyright Legislation Reform

Patricia Brennan ((no email))
Fri, 17 Nov 1995 07:58:04 -0500 (EST) 

From: Patricia Brennan <patricia>
Message-Id: <9511171258.AA09007@a.cni.org>
Subject: ARL Announces:  Steps to Influence Copyright Legislation Reform
To: arl-announce@cni.org
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 07:58:04 -0500 (EST)

November 15, 1995

ARL Announces...

First Steps for Influencing the Copyright Reform Process


ARL is participating in a broad public/private coalition that is
concerned about a rush to amend the Copyright Act for the digital
environment.  Attached is a letter that was sent to lawmakers this week
as they begin hearings on the Information Infrastructure Copyright Act
(S.1284 and H.R.  2441).  Members of the coalition (see list below) view
this letter as a first step in informing members of Congresss about the
impact of the proposed legislation on most Americans in the areas of:
privacy, innovation, information access, education, and protection for
copyright owners.  The letter is also intended to serve as a discussion
document within the stakeholder communities. 


				******

The letter is available on the ARL Server:
http://arl.cni.org/info/dfc.html
gopher://arl.cni.org:70/00/scomm/copyright/nii/admin/dfc

For additional Information about the Digital Future Coalition contact:
Prue Adler, ARL Assistant Executive Director, Federal Relations 
and Information Policies (prue@cni.org).

				******

AN OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS...


Dear Congressperson:

	The 27 undersigned charter members of the Digital Future
Coalition have been drawn from both the public and private sectors. 
Together, we represent a combined membership of more than 2.2 million
individuals, corporations and organizations with direct interests in the
continued growth and development of the National Information
Infrastructure.  Although extraordinarily diverse, we have an immediate
goal in common: assuring that the coming Congressional debate over how
the law of intellectual property can and should change in a digital age
is thorough, broad and balanced. 

	The membership of the DFC encompasses consumers, distributors,
and creators of information.  We share the view, as expressed upon
introduction of the "Information Infrastructure Copyright Act" (S.  1284
and H.R.  2441), that "we need rules for our digital highway." Together,
the members of the DFC are committed to supporting proposals which
promote innovation in the information and technology industries,
personal privacy in electronic communication, and public access to
information resources, as well as appropriate protection for copyrighted
content in the digital environment. 

	The DFC is deeply concerned that these universal goals will not
be realized if the unbalanced analysis and incomplete technological
understanding of the recent "White Paper" report by the National
Information Infrastructure Task Force's Intellectual Property Working
Group are accepted and prematurely codified.  While the authors of the
White Paper claim that its recommendations, embodied in legislation now
pending in both Houses of Congress, constitute only a "minor
clarification" of current copyright law, the real ramifications of those
recommendations are sweeping. 

	Accordingly, the DFC respectfully requests that -- to minimize
the substantial risk of unintended consequences in this highly complex
area of the law -- Congress initiate and promote the broadest possible
review and public discussion of both the specific statutory proposals
now pending and the underlying premises of the White Paper. 

	Specifically, the DFC believes that the legal regime envisioned
in the White Paper, and reflected in S.  1284 and H.R.  2441, is one
that could:

   *  delay or even prevent the emergence of new commercial technologies
      which "add value" to digital information by increasing copyright 
      owners' effective control over data resources;

   *  "pick winners" and frustrate competition in the marketplace for 
      digital goods and services by favoring established companies with 
      large holdings of copyrighted works over innovative "startup" 
      enterprises;

   *  stifle innovation and job creation in the private sector with overbroad 
      prohibitions against manufacture and sale of legitimately useful 
      consumer electronic devices, and by severely restricting reverse an 
      alysis of hardware and software for purposes of achieving 
      interoperability;

   *  invite invasion of the privacy of digital information users (including 
      students and library patrons), and expose on-line/internet service 
      providers to unspecified legal liability, by failing to address the 
      unique circumstances of these new communications media;

   *  threaten the growth of new electronic educational techniques, such as 
      "distance learning" programs vital to rural communities, by imposing 
      potentially prohibitive copyright clearance costs on academic innovators;

   *  reduce educators' and the public's access to digital information by 
      creating a new "transmission right" which would make electronic 
      communications "distributions" within the meaning of the Copyright 
      Act, and by categorizing even "browsing" as a potentially infringing
      "reproduction";

   *  undermine writers, artists and other individual creators by ignoring
      their concerns about intellectual property ownership in the digital 
      environment;

   *  increase the gap between information "haves" and "have-nots" by 
      creating new protections for copyright holders without providing 
      balancing safeguards for users; and

   *  erode the traditional concepts and practices of "fair use" by failing
      to reaffirm their importance in the digital environment.

	While virtually all these concerns were before the Working Group
which produced the White Paper, we believe that they are inadequately
addressed in the White Paper itself, and we respectfully submit that
Congress must correct that inadequacy in the record. 

	The Digital Future Coalition believes that the stakes in the
coming Congressional deliberations over S.  1284 and H.R.  2441 and the
White Paper are high.  Unless Congress immediately asserts its authority
over this vital area of public policy, we fear that premature action on
the international front could commit the nation to an imperfectly
considered and even dangerous course. 

	The White Paper was simultaneously released in Washington and at
September's meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization in
Geneva.  Secretary Brown and Commissioner Lehman, of the Patent and
Trademark Office, have been clear in their public statements that the
White Paper is intended to serve as a model for the global "rules" of
the information super- highway.  To this end, the U.S.  government
delegation to the W.I.P.O.  meetings has urged that a final diplomatic
conference to agree upon new treaty language covering the "digital
agenda" should take place early in the second half of 1996.  With this
schedule in mind, countries including the United States reportedly will
be submitting proposed treaty language to W.I.P.O.  by November 20,
1995. 

	Congress should not let this international agenda determine the
shape of domestic intellectual property law.  To assure full
consideration of the legal issues crucial to the realization of our
shared digital future, and to avoid a potentially disastrous and
unnecessary rush to judgment, the DFC respectfully urges you to:

   *  publicly announce your support for a comprehensive series of
      hearings in the Second Session of this Congress for the purpose of
      thoroughly scrutinizing the full range of intellectual property issues
      raised by the NII;

   *  formally communicate to the Executive Branch the Congress'
      conviction that the United States should take no action in international
      intellectual property negotiations that could force Congress to choose
      between either complying with a new interna- tional standard, or
      promoting the best interests of American creators and users of
      intellectual property; and

   *  actively seek independent and detailed assessments of the White
      Paper from interested organizations across the political spectrum. 

	The DFC appreciates that the sponsors of the pending legislation
regard the introduction of S.  1284 and H.R.  2441 as the beginning of
the complex process of designing the "rules of the road for the
information superhighway," and we look forward to working closely with
you to assure that those rules are fair and well crafted.  We note that
today both commercial and noncommercial use of the NII is increasing
geometrically, within the sound basic framework of existing intellectual
property laws.  There is therefore no urgent reason to legislate soon
rather than well. 


	In the near future, we will request a meeting with you and your
staff to detail the bases of our broad concerns.  In the interim, the
Digital Future Coalition thanks you for your dedication to rational
intellectual property policy.  Wide-ranging as our membership is, we
share that fundamental commitment with you and with each other. 

Sincerely,

Alliance for Public Technology
American Association of Law Libraries 
American Committee for Interoperable Systems 
American Council of Learned Societies 
American Historical Association 
American Library Association 
Art Libraries Society of North America 
Association of American Geographers 
Association of Research Libraries 
Center for Democracy and Technology 
Committee of Concerned Intellectual Property Educators 
Computer & Communications Industry Association 
Conference on College Composition and Communication 
Consortium of Social Science Associations 
Consumer Federation of America 
Consumer Project on Technology 
Electronic Frontier Foundation 
Electronic Privacy Information Center 
Modern Language Association
Medical Library Association 
National Council of Teachers of English 
National Education Association 
National Humanities Alliance 
National School Boards Association 
National Writers Union 
People for the American Way Action Fund 
Special Libraries Association

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