roundtable: Critical Time for Protecting Fair Use in Copyright
roundtable: Critical Time for Protecting Fair Use in Copyright
Critical Time for Protecting Fair Use in Copyright
Curt Priest (cpriest@juno.com)
Tue, 16 Sep 1997 16:46:28 EDT
To: ROUNDTABLE@CNI.ORG
Subject: Critical Time for Protecting Fair Use in Copyright
Message-Id: <19970916.164558.7663.0.cpriest@juno.com>
From: cpriest@juno.com (Curt Priest)
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 16:46:28 EDT
********************Please forward to other lists*****************************
*******************especially library and education lists*********************
**************************September 16, 1997**********************************
Patrice McDermott brought these matters to my attention by her
original posting on August 21st (attached below).
The publishing industry is extremely nervous about losing their
"property" to the Internet. While some of these concerns are
well founded, much is generated by the media hype over the Internet
and the fact that many in control have not even been on the Internet.
As a resident of Massachusetts, I turned to Rep. Barney Frank about
this matter (see two letters below and his reply).
If you are in any state of the Senators and Representatives mentioned
in Patrice's message, now is the time to send a fax.
Call the local office of your congressman. Mention the topic
"Intellectual Property" legislation and ask which aide is handling that.
Ask for their fax number (almost always in Washington). Then write
something about how important it is that teachers be able to access
teaching materials under fair use and how important it is for
individuals to be able to make and share copies of things under fair
use.
If you don't have time to fax -- just say you want to go on record
and make a brief statement when you call.
If you really want to understand "fair use," further, consult the
reference by Mary Hutchings Reed that I mention below.
W. Curtiss Priest
Director, Center for Information, Technology & Society
<cpriest@juno.com>
----------------
BARNEY FRANK 558 PLEASANT STREET
4TH DISTRICT, MASSACHUSETTS ROOM 309
NEW BEDFORD, MA 02740
2210 RAYBURN BUILDING CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES (508) 999--6462
(202) 225--5931 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 222 MILLIKEN PLACE
29 CRAFTS STREET WASHINGTON, DC FALL RIVER, MA O2721
NEWTON,MA O2158 (508)674 3551
BRIDGEWATER, MA 02324
(508) 697-9403
September 10, 1997
Dr. W. Curtiss Priest
Center for Information, Technology & Society
466 Pleasant Street
Melrose, Massachusetts 02176
Dear Dr. Priest,
I appreciate receiving your letter because this is a subject on which I
will be legislating, and I am therefore aided when knowledgeable people
such as yourself write to me.
I very much agree with your point that fair use should be fully
protected, and I will be interested in working with you and others to
make sure that this happens. I will be raising this issue and seeking
to work out legislative language which will explicitly protect fair use
and prevent it from being in any way diminished. I do believe it is
important to give protection to copyright holders against circumvention
that may come from new technological means, but I agree with you that
this should be done in a way that does not diminish the important
concept of fair use. If you or those with whom you work have specific
legislative language you would like to propose, feel free to send it to
me. And I promise you that I will be very cognizant of this concern
when we get to the point of actually drafting legislation.
BARNEY FRANK
BF/mg
============================================================================
August 25, 1997
Rep. Barney Frank
% Robert Raven
Massachusetts, 4th District
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515-2104
Dear Mr. Raven:
As Director of the Public Interest group called the Center for
Information, Technology & Society, I wish to convey my sincere
concern about the wording of the WIPO Copyright Treaty legislation
to be discussed on the 10th and 11th of next month.
Specifically, we share the concern that the language on "circumventing
protection afforded by a technological protection measure" would in
effect diminish access to encrypted material for lawful "fair use"
purposes.
Fair Use has been extremely important to balance the power of
almost monopoly publishers. As the recent court decision on the
rights of writers and their rights on the Internet sided with publishers,
we need to ensure that "fair use" receives more than a passing mention
in the bill.
While we understand there is language that states no rights, including
fair use, be abridged, please realize that the balance of power --
in terms of availability of legal remedies is on the side of deep-
pocketed publishers.
Any fear placed on the part of individuals including teachers and
librarians by this Act could have a devestating chilling effect
on the free flow of information.
If you have not already consulted "The Copyright Primer for
Librarians and Educators," 2nd ed., by Mary Hutchings Reed
published jointly by the American Library Association and the
National Education Association. I encourage you to consult,
in particular, the sections on "Fair Use" and "Classroom
Photocopying."
As a resident of Massachusetts and someone who supported Rep.
Frank's reelection, and as Director of this organization, I
urge you to add language in the bill that more directly
asserts the support of fair use and/or makes clear that the
"circumventing protection" language is not to be taken as
diminishing access to fair use in any way.
Should you wish to discuss this matter, I can be regularly
reached by telephone at the Center.
Sincerely,
Dr. Priest
W. Curtiss Priest, Director, CITS
Center for Information, Technology & Society
466 Pleasant St., Melrose, MA 02176
Voice: 617-662-4044 BMSLIB@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Fax: 617-662-6882 WWW: http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/CITS
============================================================================
September 15, 1997
Rep. Barney Frank
% Robert Raven
Massachusetts, 4th District
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515-2104
Dear Mr. Raven:
As Director of the Public Interest group called the Center for
Information, Technology & Society, I wish to encourage Rep. Frank
to help guide the copyright legislation toward protecting the
public's need for fair use and excessive copyright privileges.
I sent you a fax on August 25th regarding our concerns for
fair use provisions in the WIPO treaty legislation.
We also share the concern voiced by Mr. Hart in Time Magazine:
"INFORMATION AGE?". . .FOR WHOM?
Project Gutenberg founder Michael S. Hart says he is disturbed by
copyright legislation in Congress which would extend all current
copyrights by 20 years with no provision for maintaining the public
domain. "To add 20 years to copyright creates a Landed Gentry of the
Information Age," he says. The public domain is an inalienable right of
the public which cannot be a commodity to be bought or sold, either by
persons or by their government. "Copyright extension destroys both the
concept and content of the public domain." (Time 15 Sep 97)
Already, because of the long period of copyright, important educational
materials are kept out of the hands of many who cannot afford them
because publishers still hold copyright over them. Certainly, for
these economically impoverished Americans, they should not be
also impoverished by lengthening the period of copyright.
Should you wish to discuss this matter, I can be regularly
reached by telephone at the Center.
Sincerely,
Dr. Priest
W. Curtiss Priest, Director, CITS
Center for Information, Technology & Society
466 Pleasant St., Melrose, MA 02176
Voice: 617-662-4044 BMSLIB@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Fax: 617-662-6882 WWW: http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/CITS
============================================================================
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 97 16:30:49 EDT
From: Patrice McDermott <patricem@RTK.NET>
To: gov-info-access@RTK.NET, roundtable@cni.org
Subject: IMPORTANT NEWS on WIPO copyright treaties
Message-ID: <Chameleon.970821163736.patrice@patrice.rtknet.org>
Legislation has been introduced to implement WIPO copyright treaties;
House hearings scheduled for Sept. 10 & 11.
Many thanks to Page for this summary & notification.
-------------------------------------
Patrice McDermott
patricem@rtk.net
Date: 08/21/97
Time: 16:30:50
-------------------------------------
---------------Original Message---------------
NCC Washington Update, vol. 3, # 35 , August 21, 1997
by Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating
Committee for the Promotion of History <pagem@capaccess.org>
1. Legislation Introduced to Implement World Copyright Treaties
1. Legislation Introduced to Implement World Copyright Treaties -- On
July 29 Representative Howard Coble (R-NC), accompanied by
Representatives Henry Hyde (R-IL), John Conyers (D-MI) and Barney Frank
(D-MA) introduced HR 2281, a bill to amend title 17, United States Code,
to implement the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright
Treaty and Performances and Phonograms Treaty. On July 31 Senator Orrin
Hatch (R-UT), accompanied by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Fred
Thompson (R-TN) and Herbert Kohl (D-WI), introduced S. 1121, a parallel
bill. The Senate Bill appears in the Congressional Record for July 31,
1997 on pages S8582-8585.
This legislation, developed by the Clinton administration to implement
the two treaties that were adopted last December by the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), is designed to update the
international copyright law for the digital age and to ensure the
protection of American creative products abroad -- with one treaty
dealing with written material and the other with sound recordings.
There are two basic sections to this legislation. One deals with
encryption devises and prohibits the circumvention of copyright
protection systems. The other focuses on the integrity of copyright
management information and deals with the removal or alteration of
copyrighted material. The bill also includes a section on civil
remedies and the court's role in violations. The bill gives lip service
to the importance of "fair use" and states that nothing in the bill will
affect "rights, remedies, limitations, or defenses to copyright
infringement, including fair use, under this title." However, there is
continuing concern in the library and scholarly community as to whether
the language on "circumventing protection afforded by a technological
protection measure" would in effect diminish access to encrypted
material for lawful "fair use" purposes.
On introducing this legislation, Hatch said that he was putting this
legislation forward on behalf of the Administration and that the bill
represents "an excellent starting point for the debate on exactly what
must be changed in U.S. law in order to comply with the treaties." He
indicated that while he would like to see the treaties go into effect
this year, "the late date on which the Administration has submitted the
legislation may render this goal unachievable." In his remarks, Leahy
stressed that during the hearings the Judiciary Committee will need to
strive to maintain a careful balance between the authors' interest in
protection along with the public's interest in the accessibility of
information. Kohl noted that the administration's proposed bill is a
"point of departure rather than a final product." He said: "We should
make certain, as the measure moves forward, that it doesn't restrict
products that have other beneficial uses."
The House will be holding hearings on HR2281, the treaty implementing
legislation, and HR2180, the Online Copyright Liability Limitation Act,
on September 10 and 11. The Senate also plans to hold hearings but has
not yet set a date.
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 06:44:37 +0100
From: rkmoore@iol.ie (Richard K. Moore)
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Internet junta proposed (fwd)
Message-ID: <v02110101b04289d0cb49@[194.125.43.165]>
Dear roundtable,
The industry, the WTO, and the G7 - the ideal crew to engineer the
demise of the open Internet and manage the commercial monopolization of
cyberspace. These are the same well-organized and highly motivated
bunch who brought us the WIPO copyright treaty, which among other things
would make me liable for significant jail time for this forward.
This might well be taken as fair warning of the final, big-guns assault,
and may peraps finally alert netizens to the fact that "deregulation" is
a code word not for reducing controls, but simply for shifting the
rule-making to purely corporate hands.
Use it or lose it.
rkm
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Posted by Richard K. Moore - rkmoore@iol.ie - PO Box 26 Wexford,
Ireland
http://www.iol.ie/~rkmoore/cyberjournal (USA Citizen)
* Non-commercial republication encouraged - Please include this sig *
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Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997
From: Radar <nurev@Kreative.net>
[Note by Dr. Priest: this copyrighted material is being provided to you
in the "teachable moment" under Fair Use of the U.S. Copyright Act
of 1976, Section 107. As Richard Moore notes, it could become
illegal to share such information -- information that is being
provided for the public good of protecting our rights to Fair Use.]
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From: mmoxley@foto.infi.net (Mike Moxley)
Date: 97-09-14 01:55:54 EDT
EU commissioner proposes global Internet charter
BRUSSELS (Reuter) -- The European Union's top telecommunications
official called Monday for an international charter to regulate the
Internet and other electronic networks.
EU Commissioner Martin Bangemann, in a speech prepared for a
telecommunications conference in Geneva, said the charter should
deal with questions such as technical standards, illegal content,
licenses, encryption and data privacy.
"The current situation may lead to the adoption of isolated global
rules with different countries signing up to different rules agreed
under the auspices of different international organizations," the
German commissioner said.
"An international charter would provide a suitable answer."
The text of the speech was distributed in Brussels.
Bangemann said industry should lead the effort to draw up a
charter, which would be based mostly on self-regulation and mutual
recognition of national licenses.
"Its role would not be to impose detailed rules, except in
particular circumstances (child pornography, terrorist networks),"
he said.
The charter would recognize existing pacts negotiated within the
World Trade Organization and World Intellectual Property
Organization and draw on principles agreed by other bodies such as
the Group of Seven top industrial countries, he said.
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
******************************************************************
Michael Moxley The Patriot:
mmoxley@foto.infi.net http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6627/
***************************Live Free or Die!***************************
Well here we go !
Joshua2
--
See the Website:
Uderstanding the New World Order--
http://www.kreative.net/understandingNWO
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