Forwarded from the Electronic Frontier Foundation by Jeremy Butler.
------------------original message---------------------------------
[This is an action alert from the Digital Future Coalition, of which EFF
is a member organization.]
YOUR IMMEDIATE FAXES AND CALLS TO CONGRESS NEEDED TO
SLOW IMMINENT ACTION ON BADLY FLAWED CYBERSPACE COPYRIGHT BILL
Congressional contacts urgently needed NO LATER THAN Tuesday, May 21
Next Wednesday, May 22, the House Judiciary Committee's Intellectual
Property Subcommittee is scheduled to consider amendments to, and
vote on approval of HR 2441, the "National Information Infrastructure Act
of 1995." Such approval, if given, would give an important boost to
passage of a legislative package heavily backed by -- and tilted in favor
of -- the movie, recording, and publishing industries (and other large
"content providers").
[This was already supposed to have happened this week, but action on the
bill has been postponed until the 22nd, and the alert's been updated
accordingly. This delay is lucky - the public gets another chance to save
it's fair use rights. - [log in to unmask]]
If passed in its current form, the bill would:
*** make it a copyright violation to simply browse the Net without a
license from copyright owners;
*** subject computer system operators -- such as on-line services and
networks at schools and libraries -- to potentially crippling liability
for the copyright violations of their users
*** cripple "distance education" efforts especially vital to rural
communities and the disabled; and
*** make it illegal to manufacture, import or distribute devices and
software (including computers and VCRs) needed by industry, schools
and libraries to make "fair use" of encrypted information - overruling
long-standing Supreme Court precedent.
WRITE AND CALL MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE JUDICIARY INTELLECTUAL
SUBCOMMITTEE AND KEY FULL COMMITTEE MEMBERS NOW (list and
information below)!!! Tell them that:
** These issues, and the healthy development of the Net are of critical
concern to you, AND
** The May 22 meeting of the Intellectual Property Subcommittee is *too
soon*. Congress should take the time needed to understand and
adequately deal with *all* of the complicated issues raised by HR
2441 before it takes action.
For more information about the bill, the dangers it poses and the
constructive solutions offered, please see the DIGITAL FUTURE
COALITION Website at http://www.ari.net/dfc.
Please get your faxes and calls to the following members of Congress,
especially those Members who represent you, NO LATER THAN
Tuesday, May 21:
(all letters go to the address + Washington, DC 20515)
Member home city address phone fax
Carlos Moorhead Glendale, CA 2346 RHOB 225-4176 226-1279
F. James Sensenbrenner Brookfield, WI 2332 RHOB 225-5101 225-3190
George Gekas Harrisburg, PA 2410 RHOB 225-4315 225-8440
Howard Coble Asheboro, NC 403 CHOB 225-3065 225-8611
Elton Gallegly Oxnard, CA 2441 RHOB 225-5811 225-1100
Charles Canady Lakeland, FL 1222 LHOB 225-1252 225-2279
Bob Goodlatte Roanoke, NC 123 CHOB 225-5431 225-9681
Martin Hoke Fariview Park, OH 212 CHOB 225-5871 226-0994
Sonny Bono Palm Springs, CA 512 CHOB 225-5330 225-2961
John Conyers, Jr. Detroit, MI 2426 RHOB 225-5126 225-0072
Patricia Schroeder Denver, CO 2307 RHOB 225-4431 225-5842
Howard Berman Mission Hills, CA 2231 RHOB 225-4695 225-5279
Rick Boucher Abingdon, VA 2245 RHOB 225-3861 225-0442
Jerry Nadler New York, NY 109 CHOB 225-5635 225-6923
Xavier Becerra Los Angeles, CA 1119 LHOB 225-6235 225-2202
************************Suggested Letter******************************
[DATE]
The Honorable {name}
United States House of Representative
__#__ ____ Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Representative__________:
I am writing today to ask that you do everything in your power to
assure that no action is taken by the House Subcommittee on Intellectual
Property on the "NII Copyright Protection Act of 1995" (HR 2441) until a
broad consensus can be reached on how to resolve a number of issues of
critical mportance to me and, in my view, the future of the Internet. As I
understand it, this bill in its current form, would seriously undermine the
ability of businesses, inventors, schools and librraies to make full use
of the Internet's great potential. Specifically, H.R. 2441 would :
* make it a copyright violation to simply browse the Net without a license
from copyright owners;
* subject computer system operators -- such as on-line services and
networks at schools and libraries -- to potentially crippling liability
for the copyright violations of their users, even if the operator has no
knowledge of such violations;
* thwart "distance education" efforts especially vital to rural communities
and the disabled; and
* make it illegal to manufacture, import or distribute devices and
software (including computers and VCRs) needed by industry, schools and
libraries to make "fair use" of encrypted information by overruling
long-standing Supreme Court precedent.
Please don't allow the fears of major copyright owning industries to
cripple the Internet for the rest of America. I urge you and other
members of the House Judiciary Committee to take the time necessary to
understand and thoroughly debate all of the proposed amendments to H.R.
2441, including those proposed by the Digital Future Coalition.
Thank you very much for helping make the most of new technology
and the Internet to bring the benefits of information technology to all
Americans, and especially those in [INSERT THE NAME OF THE DISTRICT/CITY].
Sincerely,
*************************Press Release***********************************
DIGITAL FUTURE COALITION
...promoting "Progress in Science and useful Arts"
Contact: Ephraim Cohen
Digital Future Coalition
(202) 628-6048
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Digital Future Coalition Says Amendments Needed
to Balance NII copyright protection act of 1995
Washington, DC, May 7, 1996 -- Calling for Congress to ensure that
cyberspace copyright law remains appropriately balanced between the
interests of copyright holders and users of copyrighted material, a
Digital Future Coalition (DFC) spokesman today outlined a seven-point
package of amendments to S.1284, the NII Copyright Protection Act of
1995. The changes were recommended during hearings on the Clinton
Administration's proposal before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Introduced by Senators Orrin Hatch(R. Utah) and Patrick Leahy(D.
Vermont), S.1284 is based on recommendations made by the Working Group
on Intellectual Property Rights after two years of study of consumers'
use of copyrighted works on the Internet.
DFC Spokesman Robert L. Oakley, Professor of Intellectual Property
Law, Director of the Georgetown Center Law Library and Washington
Affairs Representative for the American Association of Law Libraries,
told the committee, " Congress now has a golden opportunity (and a
responsibility) to bring all of the critical precepts at the core of
copyright law into the digital future together and in balance."
DFC recommended several clarifications to S.1284 to ensure that the
nature and scope of the Fair Use Doctrine would be made clear in the
legislation, that there would not be overbroad restrictions on the
manufacture of devices and systems needed to make fair use rights
real, and that commercial and non-commercial use of the NII and GII
would not be "dramatically chilled by the potential for crippling
legislation and liability." It also offered new provisions on the Fair
Use and First Sale doctrines and recommended that Section 1201, regarding
"Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems" be stricken from the
bill.
To "better assure that the critical balance in the copyright law is
maintained," the DFC's seven-point proposal included new provisions to:
* Make clear that RAM and other "ephemeral" reproductions are
not "copies" within the meaning of the bill
* Clarify that the Fair Use doctrine applies to the transmission of
copyrighted works
* Maximize libraries' ability to preserve the nation's cultural and
scholarly heritage
* Affirm that the "First Sale" doctrine applies to digital copies
lawfully acquired by electronic transmission to the same extent
that it applies to physical analog copies
* Assure that the public is not deprived of advances in "distance
education" for elementary, secondary and higher education
* Adopt product-specific, industry developed solutions to
questions of reproduction of intellectual property, and abandon the
current anti-technology approach
* Focus criminal prosecutions only on actions with the intent to
infringe copyright, and study carefully the potential for
compromising network users' privacy imposed by "copyright
management information" systems
Oakley said the imbalance of copyright protection included in S.1284,
"not only threatens consumer interests and to inhibit or preclude the
emergence of new business models in cyberspace, but also promises to
retard the very 'Progress in Science and the useful Arts' that led the
Framers of the Constitution to grant Congress the power to award
copyrights over two centuries ago."
The Digital Future Coalition has a membership from both the public and
private sectors which together represents a combined membership of
more than 2.2 million individuals, corporations and organizations with
direct interests in the continued growth and development of the National
Information Infrastructure. The members of the DFC are committed to
supporting proposals which promote innovation in the information and
technology industries, personal privacy in electronic communication, and
public access to information resources, as well as appropriate
protection for copyrighted content in the digital environment.
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