ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 8, Number 98 September 30, 1999 In this issue: Urgent Action Alert: Cosponsors Needed for Rep. Bliley's Database Bill, H.R. 1858 ACTION NEEDED: Library advocates should call AND write their Representatives urging them to cosponsor H.R. 1858, The Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act of 1999. (Please also thank those Representatives listed below for cosponsoring this important piece of legislation.) The more support and cosponsors Rep. Bliley's bill receives, the more likely a House database bill will strike a balance between the interests of selected database producers while ensuring that legitimate and appropriate access to factual information continues. The U.S. Capitol Switchboard number at 202-224-3121. Please also send, fax, or e-mail a blind copy of your letter to the ALA Washington Office so we can underscore your concern when we meet with your Representatives on behalf of libraries. BACKGROUND: Currently there are two competing database protection bills circulating in Congress. H.R. 1858, the Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act of 1999 introduced by Rep. Thomas Bliley, Jr. (R-VA), is supported by virtually every major national library and education organization, the research and scientific community and many high-technology industry groups. H.R. 354, the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act sponsored by Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC), is the opposing bill. Rep. Coble's bill, H.R. 354, has almost three times as many cosponsors as H.R. 1858. The proponents of H.R. 354 got their message out. Now is the time to work together to get cosponsors for H.R. 1858. There are some possible scenarios in the upcoming weeks. One is there will be a compromise, and the two database bills will merge. The other is that the two bills will be voted on separately and one will be sent to the Senate for consideration. In either scenario, the more support and cosponsors Rep. Bliley's bill receives, the more likely a database bill will pass the House which strikes a balance between the interests of selected database producers while ensuring that legitimate and appropriate access to factual information continues. RESOURCES: See also ALAWON v8, n88 at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon/alwn8088.html and v8, n81 at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon/alwn8081.html The ALA Legislative Action Center has a sample letter entitled Support H.R. 1858, the Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act of 1999 at http://congress.nw.dc.us/ala/ ALA, along with 130 groups, signed a position statement detailing their desire to protect databases from piracy while ensuring access to information. The position statement, along with other materials related to database issues, are at http://www.databasedata.org/ If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Miriam Nisbet, ALA Washington Office Legislative Counsel, at 202- 628-8410 or mmn@alawash.org COSPONSORS TO H.R. 1858, THE CONSUMER AND INVESTOR ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACT OF 1999 CA-14 Anna G. Eshoo FL-6 Clifford B. Stearns GA-9 Nathan Deal IN-2 David M. McIntosh LA-3 W. J. Tauzin MA-7 Edward J. Markey MI-16 John D. Dingell MS-2 Bennie G. Thompson MO-1 William L. Clay MO-7 Roy Blunt NY-10 Edolphus Towns NC-2 Bob Etheridge OH-4 Michael G. Oxley OH-12 John R. Kasich OH-18 Robert W. Ney TX-6 Joe Barton VA-7 Tom Bliley, original sponsor VA-9 Rick Boucher WI-5 Thomas M. Barrett ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. 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. Editor: Lynne E. Bradley; Managing Editor: Deirdre Herman; Contributors: Sally Benson, Mary Costabile, Peter Kaplan, Carrie Russell, Saundra Shirley, Claudette Tennant and Rick Weingarten.