Here are some valuable comments by Andy Oram, moderator of the Cyber-Rights List offered by Computer Professionals for Social Responsiblity--along with computer industry reaction to the new copyright proposal.
March 11, 1996
Subject: cr> Copyright restrictions for online material
Commentary by moderator:
Remember the Green Paper (and then White Paper) on copyright put
out
by the Clinton Administration? They proposed making it a criminal
act
to do any kind of distribution of copyrighted material on your
own
(such as emailing a copy of something to a friend) and perhaps
even
storing material on your own system!
Despite several expert analyses critizing parts of the proposal
(some
of which you can see on the current-issues page on our Web) a new
bill
in Congress parrots its worst aspects. For instance, it contains
a
passage against any "device or product" whose
"primary purpose or
effect" is to circumvent copyright. What computer product
could
escape persecution under that broad a ban?
A letter protesting the bill follows.
I'm no John Perry Barlow--I believe in people getting paid for
their
literary labors (and well I should, since I work for a
publisher).
But the framers of this bill are ignoring basic technical issues
(sound familiar?). And up to now, copyright has always been
balanced
against the legitimate needs of researchers and teachers.
As usual, a move in this direction will have far-reaching
international repercussions. The countries of the world are
trying to
come together (such as in GATT) concerning intellectual property,
and
the model set by the U.S. will be important.
Andy
The Honorable Henry J. Hyde
Chairman, House Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. House of Representatives
2110 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-1306
The Honorable Carlos J. Moorhead
Chairman, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual
Property
U.S. House of Representatives
2346 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-0527
Dear Mr. Chairmen:
The undersigned companies and associations represent the full
spectrum of
the information technology industry -- from hardware to software,
from
information services to Internet access providers and end users,
and from
local to long distance communications carriers. We fully support
the need
to protect the rights of copyright owners, particularly since
intellectual
property protection is a bedrock of the information technology
industry. We
also support the long- standing tradition of copyright law which
has sought
to balance the rights and obligations of copyright owners with
those of
information publishers, distributors, and users.
We are writing today to express concern with H.R. 2441, the
"NII Copyright
Protection Act of 1995." We specifically ask the Committee
to consider more
fully the impact of expanding the distribution rights to include
"transmit." As providers and users of various network
access and
communications services, we must be protected from an
inappropriate and
excessive risk of liability. In these roles, we do not initiate
or control
the transmission of protected works. We ask that the hearing
record remain
open, that more hearings be scheduled, and that the views of all
parties
interested in the success of the Internet on both domestic and
global
scales be heard.
The changes in copyright law proposed in H.R. 2441 and the
identical Senate
version, S. 1284, are significant in that they expand the
exclusive rights
granted copyright owners, while placing legal burdens upon
information
service providers who transmit communications for content
providers. This
could unwittingly and abruptly halt the development of the
Internet, the
National Information Infrastructure (NII), and the Global
Information
Infrastructure (GII).
Finally, because many representatives of the undersigned
organizations were
not part of the congressional legislative drafting process for
H.R. 2441,
we ask that, together with other interested persons, we be
invited to
participate actively in a discussion process designed to address
these
concerns. We look forward to supporting the pending legislation
when these
issues are resolved in a balanced manner.
Sincerely,
Amdahl Corporation
America Online
Ameritech
AT&T
Bell Atlantic
BellSouth Corporation
Broadcast Productions Group
CompuServe Incorporated
Computer & Communications Industry Association
Commercial Internet eXchange Association
Dun & Bradstreet, Inc.
Electronic Messaging Association
Information Technologies Association of America
ManyMedia
MCI Communications Corporation
MultiMedia Telecommunications Association
National Retail Federation
Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc.
Prodigy Services Company
SNET
SBC Communications Inc.
Spyglass, Inc.
The Internet Company
Pacific Telesis Group
U S WEST
cc: Members of the House Committee on the Judiciary
Alan F. Coffey, Jr.
Julian Epstein
Thomas E. Mooney
Mitchell Glazier
Betty Wheeler