================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 37 ISSN 1069-7799 April 3, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (193 lines) ACTION NEEDED: JUDICIARY COMMITTEES ADVANCE FLAWED AND INCOMPLETE COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION; COSPONSORSHIP OF H.R. 3048 AND S. 1146 NEEDED _________________________________________________________________ ACTION NEEDED: JUDICIARY COMMITTEES ADVANCE FLAWED AND INCOMPLETE COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION; COSPONSORSHIP OF H.R. 3048 AND S. 1146 NEEDED The Judiciary Committees of both the House and Senate took steps this week to advance legislation to update the nation's copyright laws to address the challenges of cyberspace. On April 1 the House Judiciary Committee voted to report out a new substitute for H.R. 2281, WIPO Copyright Treaties Implementation Act, which included two main parts: (1) a minimally amended version of the original Administration legislation opposed by ALA and the Digital Future Coalition (DFC) which would bar the manufacture of multiple-purpose electronic devices needed by libraries to afford the public access to encrypted information; and (2) a version of H.R. 3209, a bill to limit the copyright liability of online service providers, amended to reflect parts of an agreement reached Wednesday morning between major content owners, phone companies and commercial service providers. Representatives of libraries and other parts of the public sector were excluded from this latest and most important round of formal negotiations. Significantly, the House Committee rejected by voice vote a half-dozen amendments by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) which would have lessened the new bill's adverse effects on public access to information and on the ability to electronically obtain and use works not protected by copyright or in the public domain. One of those amendments was the text of Rep. Boucher's own excellent bill. Less than 24 hours after the House Committee meeting, the Senate Judiciary Committee discussed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (not yet introduced). Like the House bill, this new legislation also contains two main titles: one substantially identical to the House version of the Administration's seriously deficient bill, and the second incorporating all of the terms of the liability limiting agreement reached between commercial content owners and online service providers. Importantly, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act contains none of the provisions and takes none of the more moderate approaches to rebalancing the Copyright Act for the digital age contained in S. 1146, Sen. John Ashcroft's (R-MO) Digital Copyright Clarification and Technology Education, a bill also strongly endorsed by ALA and the DFC. It is unclear whether the discrepancy between the bills will be addressed when the Senate Committee meets again to actively debate and modify the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. ACTION NEEDED: ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO COSPONSOR H.R. 3048: If your Representative is listed below, please take a moment to thank them. If you don't see your Representative's name, please ask them now to cosponsor H.R. 3048, the Digital Copyright Era Enhancement Act, and to support sponsors Reps. Boucher and Tom Campbell (R-CA) when this matter comes to the House floor this spring. H.R. 3048 is strongly supported by ALA, the DFC, and librarians nationwide who have been calling and faxing their Representative seeking support for this landmark bill. Those efforts are paying off, so please keep those contacts coming. More than 30 Representatives from both parties and every sector of the political spectrum now cosponsor H.R. 3048. ASK YOUR SENATORS TO COSPONSOR S. 1146: Library supporters, especially those represented by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee listed below, are also urged to ask their Senators to cosponsor Sen. Ashcroft's S. 1146, a bill to revise the Copyright Act which appropriately balances the protection of intellectual property and the provision of library and other access to it. The U.S. Capitol Switchboard phone number is 202-224-3121. CURRENT COSPONSORS OF H.R. 3048 (as of 4/3/98) CA-6 D Lynn C. Woolsey CA-15 R Tom Campbell CA-31 D Matthew G. Martinez CA-34 D Esteban Torres CA-45 R Dana Rohrabacher CA-49 R Brian P. Bilbray CT-4 R Christopher Shays CT-5 D James H. Maloney DE-1 R Michael N. Castle FL-3 D Corrine Brown GA-10 R Charles W. Norwood IL-5 D Rod R. Blagojevich IL-17 D Lane Evans MD-8 R Constance A. Morella MA-2 D Richard E. Neal MN-3 R Jim Ramstad MN-7 D Collin C. Peterson MS-1 R Roger F. Wicker NC-2 D Bob Etheridge NJ-6 D Frank Pallone NY-10 D Edolphus Towns NY-11 D Major R. Owens NY-25 R James T. Walsh OH-13 D Sherrod Brown OH-19 R Steve C. LaTourette OR-4 D Peter A. DeFazio PA-14 D William J. Coyne SC-6 D James E. Clyburn TX-1 D Max Sandlin VA-2 D Owen B. Pickett VA-9 D Rick Boucher WV-3 D Nick J. Rahall WI-2 R Scott L. Klug HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MEMBERS (Constituents of these members are especially urged to contact them now!) ST-DST PTY REPRESENTATIVE PHONE FAX (Use 202 area code) AR-3 R Asa Hutchinson 225-4301 225-5713 CA-16 D Zoe Lofgren 225-3072 225-3336 CA-23 R Elton Gallegly 225-5811 225-1100 CA-26 D Howard L. Berman 225-4695 225-5279 CA-27 R James E. Rogan 225-4176 225-5828 CA-35 D Maxine Waters 225-2201 225-7854 FL-8 R Bill McCollum 225-2176 225-0999 FL-12 R Charles T. Canady 225-1252 225-2279 FL-19 D Robert Wexler 225-3001 225-5974 GA-7 R Bob Barr 225-2931 225-2944 IL-6 R Henry J. Hyde, Chair 225-4561 225-1166 IN-5 R Stephen E. Buyer 225-5037 225-2267 IN-7 R Edward A. Pease 225-5805 225-1649 MA-4 D Barney Frank 225-5931 225-0182 MA-5 D Martin T. Meehan 225-3411 226-0771 MA-10 D William D. Delahunt 225-3111 225-5658 MI-14 D John Conyers, Jr., Rnk. Dem. 225-5126 225-0072 NJ-9 D Steve R. Rothman 225-5061 225-5851 NM-1 R Steven H. Schiff 225-6316 225-4975 NY-8 D Jerrold Nadler 225-5635 225-6923 NY-9 D Charles E. Schumer 225-6616 225-4183 NC-6 R Howard Coble 225-3065 225-8611 NC-12 D Melvin L. Watt 225-1510 225-1512 OH-1 R Steve Chabot 225-2216 225-3012 PA-17 R George W. Gekas 225-4315 225-8440 SC-4 R Robert D. Inglis 225-6030 226-1177 TN-1 R William L. Jenkins 225-6356 225-5714 TN-7 R Edward G. Bryant 225-2811 225-2989 TX-18 D Sheila Jackson Lee 225-3816 225-3317 TX-21 R Lamar S. Smith 225-4236 225-8628 UT-3 R Christopher B. Cannon 225-7751 225-5629 VA-3 D Robert C. Scott 225-8351 225-8354 VA-6 R Bob Goodlatte 225-5431 225-9681 *VA-9 D Rick Boucher 225-3861 225-0442 WI-9 R James Sensenbrenner, Jr. 225-5101 225-3190 *Rep. Boucher (D-VA) is the author of H.R. 3048 _________________________________________________________________ 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 Eisgrau All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================