ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 13, Number 32
May 13, 2004

In This Issue: 1) Library associations testify on behalf of fair use in the digital age before House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee
2) Attention librarians in PA, TX, AZ and FL.

1) Libraries testify on behalf of fair use in the digital age before House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee

ALA Legislative Counsel, Miriam Nisbet, testified on May 12, 2004, at the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing on H.R. 107, the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act. Speaking on behalf of ALA, AALL, ARL, SLA, and MLA, Ms. Nisbet pointed out the ways that the current prohibitions resulting from passage of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) stifle a library's ability to make fair use of digital materials, to preserve and archive digital content and to take advantage fully of the other library exceptions provided by federal copyright law.

 The library testimony joined the chorus of support for H.R. 107 from the consumer electronics industry, consumers and other public interest groups, noted intellectual property law professors Peter Jaszi from American University and Lawrence Lessig of Stanford, Robert Moore, President of 321 Studios, and former U.S. Representative Allan Swift from Washington. All repeated that the DMCA is broken and needs to be fixed.  Ms. Nisbet also explained that the library exemption provided in the DMCA was so narrow as to be useless and that the Copyright Office triennial rulemakings to determine the need for more exemptions have proven ineffective because the statutory standards have been interpreted so narrowly. Representatives from the movie, recording and entertainment software associations testified in opposition to H.R. 107. The full-day hearing became a debate about the necessity vs. the threat of maintaining fair use in the digital age. 

Copy of the library testimony is available at www.ala.org/copyright. Go to Copyright News for May 12, 2004. Testimony from all panelists is available at http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/action.htm.

Introduced in January of 2003, H.R. 107 was languishing in committee until Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), newly-appointed chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, scheduled the hearing. A bi-partisan bill co-sponsored by Rep. Boucher (D-VA) and Rep. Doolittle (R-CA), H.R. 107 is considered the first significant bill to attempt to restore the balance in the copyright law that was lost in the passage of the DMCA.  The bill reaffirms the importance of maintaining fair use in the digital age. 

2) Attention librarians in PA, TX, AZ, and FL.

Rep. Doyle (D-PA), Rep. Rodriguez (D-TX) and Rep. Grijalva (D-AZ) have recently signed on as co-sponsors to H.R. 107.  Please convey your thanks for their willingness to co-sponsor this important bill.  In addition, please thank Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chair of that Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, for holding the hearing on H.R. 107.  


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ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff.  Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Carol Ashworth, Camille Bowman, Don Essex, Joshua Farrelman, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.