================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 46 ISSN 1069-7799 May 12, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (76 lines) DANGEROUS DATABASE LEGISLATION ON HOUSE FLOOR TONIGHT; ASK FOR A -NO- VOTE TODAY ON H.R. 2652 _________________________________________________________________ ULTRA-URGENT: DANGEROUS DATABASE LEGISLATION-H.R. 2652-ON HOUSE FLOOR TONIGHT; PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IMMEDIATELY AND ASK FOR A -NO- VOTE TODAY ON H.R. 2652, THE COLLECTION OF INFORMATION ANTIPIRACY ACT. BACKGROUND: LATER TODAY, May 12, the House of Representatives will debate and vote on H.R. 2652, the Collection of Information Antipiracy Act, under a procedure that requires it to pass with a two-thirds majority usually reserved for non-controversial bills. H.R. 2652 is backed by the relatively small, but very powerful, group of companies of the Information Industry Association (e.g., West Publishing, Reed-Elsevier and others). They are seeking sweeping new legal protection for databases that would restrict access to and excerpting of their factual compilations, even if those compilations did NOT qualify for copyright protection. Moreover, the definition of a protected database in the bill is so broad that almost any collection of information --even if entirely gathered from the public domain --would be entitled to this new protection. The legislation contains no meaningful fair use-type exceptions. Accordingly, H.R. 2652 is strongly OPPOSED by ALA, every other major national library and educational organization, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Research Council, the Information Technology Association of America, AT&T, Dun & Bradstreet, and the several hundred member companies of the Commercial Internet Exchange. THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WILL VOTE ON H.R. 2652 TONIGHT. IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED: Because H.R. 2652 must pass the House with two-thirds of the vote, this over broad and unjustified bill could be defeated by fewer than 150 Representatives! * PLEASE CALL THE CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD IMMEDIATELY AT 202-225-3121; * Ask for your member of the House of Representatives by name; * Once connected, ask for the staff member who handles copyright issues; * Please tell them that you OPPOSE H.R. 2652 and that you urge your Representative to VOTE A -NO- ON H.R. 2652 when it comes to the House floor later today; * Please refer them to the ALA Washington office for more details (202-628-8410). _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Adam M. Eisgrau All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================