****Begin File******************Begin File*******************Begin File**** *************************************************************************** ISSN 1069-7799 ALAWON ALA Washington Office Newsline An electronic publication of the American Library Association Washington Office Volume 3, Number 73 December 15, 1994 In this issue: (172 lines) POSTAL GOVERNORS APPROVE RATE INCREASES EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1 ALA CONTINUES SUPPORT IN TEXACO FAIR USE APPEAL COSLA MEANS... *************************************************************************** POSTAL GOVERNORS APPROVE RATE INCREASES EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1 The U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors has approved the postal rates recommended on November 30 by the independent Postal Rate Commission. The PRC had made only minor changes from the rates proposed earlier this year by the U.S. Postal Service. The action by the USPS Board of Governors on December 12, 1994, makes the rates official effective January 1, 1995. For the fourth-class library rate, the new rates will be 69.9 percent higher than current rates, a marginal improvement over the 73.7 percent requested by USPS. A typical 3-lb. library rate package will increase from the current $1.14 to $1.96. The new rates are as follows: 4th-Class Library Rate Current USPS New Rate Rate Request As of 1/1/95 First Pound $.66 $1.14 $1.12 Each add'l lb. through 7 lbs. .24 .42 .42 Each add'l lb. over 7 lbs. .12 .21 .22 Other increases include a hike in the first class stamp from $.29 to $.32; an average 19.3 percent increase in second class nonprofit rates; and an average 3.9 percent increase in third class bulk rate nonprofit mail. DATA ON IMPACT OF LIBRARY RATE INCREASE NEEDED. A few major library rate mailers have already indicated that because of the hefty rate increase, they plan to discontinue books-by-mail service or library rate delivery of materials reserved by users. In order to document the effect on library services of the large and imminent increase in the library rate, please send information on discontinued services, use of alternate delivery mechanisms, or cost increases required by the new library rate to the ALA Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20002; fax, 202-547-7363; or alawash@alawash.org. Library rate mailers considering private delivery services are urged to aggregate package mail throughout library systems or cooperatives or with other mailers, and to bargain for favorable contracts or volume discounts. While the Postal Service is limited to a specific rate schedule, libraries may be able to negotiate with private providers. FACTORS INVOLVED IN LIBRARY RATE INCREASE. The December 1 ALAWON article on the Postal Rate Commission decision on the library postal rate quoted from the press packet issued on November 30. The PRC urged the Postal Service to reexamine its library cost data and file immediately for a modification if faulty data indicate a need for a modification in the library rate. Library mailers should not place undue hope in this possibility. While USPS may indeed recheck its data, it is not required to take any action based on language in a PRC press release. Analysis of the two-inch thick PRC Opinion and Recommended Decision in Docket R94-1 indicates some inconsistency on the issue of faulty USPS data. Early in its opinion, the PRC devotes several pages to the data deficiencies in the Postal Service presentation relating to all rates. These deficiencies include a reduced commitment and reduced resources devoted to developing and providing reliable data; a lack of recent and reliable studies; and haphazard preparation, poor usability, and insufficient documentation of the information that was supplied. The PRC recommended a review of the entire system by the Governors and the Postal Service. However, in the case of the library rate where preposterously high cost increases were claimed by USPS without any good explanation, the PRC let the rate increase stand with practically no adjustment and no detailed explanation. ALA as a limited intervenor had provided examples of legal precedents from previous rate cases where the PRC had adjusted rates downward significantly when presented with USPS requests for anomalous and unexplained increases, but the PRC did not choose to do so in this instance. Faced with (and apparently unhappy with) a lobbying campaign from ALA, libraries and legislators on behalf of library mailers and their users, the PRC responded to inquiries with a letter that said ALA appeared "in this case only as a limited intervenor and placed no evidence in the record." This is a bit of a "blame the victim" strategy minimizing ALA's multiple intervention strategies, and inappropriately blaming nonprofit mailers of 0.02 percent of mail volume for an inability to engage in the expensive legal and economic discovery process used by some groups of major mailers and commercial firms to analyze the Postal Service data collection techniques in the hope of discovering errors. Despite the PRC's reservations about USPS data, in its brief explanation for its library rate decision, the PRC said it was clear that substantial cost increases have occurred for library rate mail and that the Commission had no reason to doubt these costs. The PRC also noted that in the last rate case in 1990 the library rate was increased only 2 percent, much less than the systemwide 18 percent and less than the earlier recommended 27 percent increase. It may be that part of the large increase now is due to earlier cost increases that were not recovered in previous years. If so, this would explain only about one-third of the current increase. In light of repeated findings by the Commission on the pervasive unreliability of Postal Service cost data, the PRC's insistence that ALA bear the burden of figuring out the exact data errors in a patently implausible cost increase is incomprehensible. In reply to letters of inquiry from librarians and legislators, the Postal Rate Commission essentially blamed ALA for the library rate result in this case. The Commission's job is to protect the mailing public, not to blame the victim. *************************************************************************** ALA CONTINUES SUPPORT IN TEXACO FAIR USE APPEAL On behalf of ALA, Attorney Susan Braden of the law firm Ingersoll and Block, submitted a brief amicus curiae to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit supporting Texaco's petition for rehearing _en banc_ of the Court's decision in the fair use case, _American Geophysical Union v. Texaco, Inc._ (See ALAWON, Vol. 3, No. 68, November 21, 1994.) Filing on December 6, Braden argued the Court _en banc_ has the responsibility of insuring that decisions issued from the Second Circuit comply with Supreme Court precedent. She wrote that after the Second Circuit head oral argument, and before the October 28 decision was issued, the Supreme Court issued two significant copyright cases, _Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc._ 114 S.Ct. 1023 (1994) and _Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc._ 114 S. Ct. 1164 (1994). ALA's brief addresses the deficiencies in the Majority Opinion's analysis because it failed to follow the _Fogerty_ and _Campbell_ decisions in making its fair use determination under 17 U.S.C. ss. 107. Additionally, Braden argued that the Second Circuit should review and reverse the unprecedented and extraordinary endorsement that will ensue in courts throughout the country as a result. *************************************************************************** COSLA MEANS ... CHIEF OFFICERS OF STATE LIBRARY AGENCIES And, finally, the Editor of ALAWON apologizes to COSLA. We do know that COSLA stands for the CHIEF OFFICERS OF STATE LIBRARY AGENCIES and not the mis-statement in ALAWON, Vol. 3, No. 68 (part of the report of COSLA's endorsement of the ALA filing before the Federal Communications Commission). *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC 20002-5675. Internet: alawash@alawash.org; Phone: 202-547-4440; Fax: 202-547-7363. Contributing to this issue: Carol C. Henderson (cch@alawash.org) and Anne A. Heanue (aah@alawash.org). Editor: Lynne E. Bradley (leb@alawash.org). ALAWON is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe ala-wo [your name]" to listserv@uicvm (Bitnet) or listserv@uicvm.uic.edu (Internet). Back issues and other documents are available from the list server. To find out what's available, send the message "send ala-wo filelist" to the listserv. The ALA-WO filelist contains the list of files with the exact filename and filetype. To get a particular file, issue the command "send filename filetype" to the listserv. Do not include the quotes in your commands. All materials in the newsletter subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. For other reprinting or redistribution, address requests to the ALA Washington Office (alawash@alawash.org). *************************************************************************** ***End of file******************End of file******************End of file***