_________________________________________________________________ ALAWON Volume 7, Number 124 ISSN 1069-7799 October 8, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (161 lines) CONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITY IS HOT AND HEAVY; ISSUES UPDATE [1] WIPO COPYRIGHT TREATIES IMPLEMENTATION ACT [2] DATABASE PROTECTION BILL [3] COPYRIGHT TERM EXTENSION ACT [4] READING EXCELLENCE ACT [5] COATS AND OXLEY CHILDREN'S PROTECTION AMENDMENTS [6] CHILDREN'S ONLINE PRIVACY BILL [7] FILTERING AND BLOCKING SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS [8] FUNDING FOR LIBRARY AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS _________________________________________________________________ CONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITY IS HOT AND HEAVY; ISSUES UPDATE Congressional activity has been intense during this last week of the congressional session, and so has activity in the ALA Washington Office. Here is a partial list of recent and pending actions; future issues of ALAWON will include additional details. [1] WIPO COPYRIGHT TREATIES IMPLEMENTATION ACT The House-Senate conference version of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (H.R. 2281) is scheduled for possible floor action in both chambers of Congress today. It includes improvements to several sections of the bill of interest to librarians. [2] DATABASE PROTECTION BILL Conferees agreed to drop the Collections of Information Anti-Piracy Act from H.R. 2281, the WIPO treaties bill. This is a major improvement; the database protection measure would have had drastic negative effects on education and research and would have protected facts for the first time. The issue will undoubtedly be an agenda item in the new Congress next year. [3] COPYRIGHT TERM EXTENSION ACT Both Senate and House passed on October 7 a 20-year extension of the current life-plus-50-year copyright term (S. 505). The measure retains a limited exception for libraries, archives and non-profit educational institutions crafted in intense negotiations last year. [4] READING EXCELLENCE ACT The Senate on October 6 passed by voice vote a version of the Reading Excellence Act (H.R. 2614) that represents House-Senate agreement on this congressional revision of the Administration's children's literacy initiative, America Reads. The House is expected to pass this version as well. [5] COATS AND OXLEY CHILDREN'S PROTECTION AMENDMENTS SENATE: A revised and substantially narrowed version of Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) bill (S. 1492) to prohibit commercial distribution to minors on the web of material that is" harmful to minors" was approved October 7 as an amendment to the Internet Tax Freedom Act (S. 442), with only Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) voting against the measure. This new version of the Coats' bill, rewritten to make it germane to the Internet tax bill, would remove the criminal penalties in the original bill but would deny commercial porn site distributors the exemption from taxation provided in the underlying bill unless they restrict access to persons under 17 years of age of "material that is harmful to minors." S. 442 passed the Senate on October 8 by a vote of 96-2. A version of the Internet Tax Freedom bill has already passed the House without similar language. HOUSE: On October 7 the House adopted by voice vote Rep. Michael OXLEY's (R-OH) bill (H.R. 3783) to prohibit the commercial distribution on the web to minors of material that is "harmful to minors." In a letter to Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley, the Justice Department voiced concerns over the Oxley bill, noting that it was ambiguous and overbroad, and likely to be challenged on constitutional grounds. The Department also expressed concern that enforcement of the "harmful to minors" measure would divert resources from important child protection measures including the prosecution of child pornography. It is unclear whether the Senate will consider the Oxley bill before it adjourns, although it is likely efforts will be made to attach the House package, i.e. the Oxley and children's privacy bills (see below), to the omnibus appropriations bill. [6] CHILDREN'S ONLINE PRIVACY BILL SENATE: An amended version of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, S.2326, passed the Senate on October 7 as an amendment to the Internet Tax Freedom Act (S. 442)after substantial revisions were made in the legislation. The revisions respond to concerns expressed by ALA and others that the bill would interfere with children's access to information on the Internet and undermine, rather than enhance their privacy rights. The bill, which would require parental consent or notice before children could give any personally identifiable information to commercial Web sites targeted to children, originally covered children up to sixteen and would have imposed the notice and consent requirements on nonprofit sites including libraries. In the final version adopted by the Senate, the age was dropped to 12 and under, and nonprofit organizations were excluded form the scope of the bill. At the same time, routine e-mail communications between children and commercial Web sites were also excluded from the consent requirement and the Federal Trade Commission would be empowered to determine additional circumstances when it is appropriate for children to give out personally identifiable information without parental notice or consent. HOUSE: On October 7 the amended version of the Children's Online Privacy bill was added to Rep. Oxley's Child Online Protection Act (H.R. 3783) over the strong objections of many of the supporters of the privacy bill who believe that the coupling of privacy with the controversial measure might undermine its passage. Many of the supporters of the children's privacy bill also oppose the Oxley bill on the merits. [7] FILTERING AND BLOCKING SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS As Congress works to develop an omnibus appropriations bill that is acceptable to both Houses of Congress as well as the Administration, the filtering software requirements on funding bills appear, as of this writing, to have been dropped from the final omnibus measure. [8] FUNDING FOR LIBRARY AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS House and Senate appropriators have reportedly reached agreement on funding levels and other issues in the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill. Details are not yet available. An omnibus funding measure in which this and other bills will be included is likely to be the final item on the 105th Congress' agenda. Legislators are pushing to finish the session this weekend in order to go home to campaign. _________________________________________________________________ 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, go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/ subscribe.html or 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: Carol C. Henderson All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. _________________________________________________________________