From: believer@telepath.com Subject: IP: Congress Poised To Approve Digital Copyright Law Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1998 18:41:50 -0500 To: believer@telepath.com Source: Fox News - Reuters Congress Poised To Approve Digital Copyright Law 3.08 p.m. ET (1909 GMT) October 9, 1998 WASHINGTON Congress was expected to complete work later Friday on legislation to update copyright law for the digital age, after removing a controversial provision granting new rights to databases. The bill, which the Senate approved Thursday and the House will consider Friday, implements provisions of two international treaties adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organization in 1996. Software makers, movie studios, book publishers and other creators of copyrighted works have pushed hard for the legislation. They feared that as their products increasingly became available on the Internet in digital form, pirates and criminals would be able easily to make and sell illegal copies. The legislation creates criminal penalties for anyone who disables high-tech, anti-piracy protections, such as encryption, used to block illegal copying. The bill forbids the manufacture, import, sale or distribution of devices or services used for circumvention, as well. "This was a huge win for us,'' said Richard Taylor, spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America. The movie industry will depend heavily on anti-piracy technology for movies distributed in all manner of formats, he said. A variety of exceptions were also included at the request of libraries, scientists and universities as well as some manufacturers of consumer electronic devices. They feared the law would prevent some kinds of research and would unfairly limit "fair use,'' the central principle of existing copyright law allowing copies to be made for educational and other noncommercial purposes. The exceptions include allowing circumvention if done for computer security testing, encryption research or limited kinds of computer software development. Internet surfers could also circumvent in limited ways to protect their privacy and parents could circumvent to monitor their children's travels through cyberspace. "What we've really been fighting about for the last few months was the exceptions,'' said Jonathan Band, a lawyer at Morrison & Foerster who worked with groups seeking to protect fair use. Band criticized Congress for criminalizing devices instead of actions only and for ignoring a person's motives for circumventing. "Given that Congress chose to go about it entirely the wrong way, it ended up pretty well,'' he said. In addition, at the urging of Band's group and others, the anti-circumvention laws will not go into effect for two years, until the Librarian of Congress, with advice from the Commerce Department, decides whether additional exceptions need to be made. Such exceptions would be reconsidered in a recurring process every three years, at which time new exceptions could also be created. The bill also defined broad freedom from liability for online and Internet service providers, like America Online , which otherwise might have been held financially liable for copyright infringement by one of their millions of customers. Under the bill, service providers will not be held liable for violations they do not know of but if notified by a copyright holder, must take rapid action to shut down the alleged violator. However, if the copyright holder fails to pursue the claim in court within a few weeks, the alleged violator has the right to demand that online access be restored. The controversial database provision, that was added at the last minute to the House version of the bill by North Carolina Republican Rep. Howard Coble, was dropped by a conference committee of members of both chambers. The provision would have overturned a Supreme Court ruling and granted copyright protection for the first time to databases assembled out of facts that themselves were common knowledge and not protected by copyright law. "The library community is extremely grateful that a sea change in American law was not made,'' Adam Eisgrau, lobbyist for the American Library Association, said. © Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************