Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 10:58:55 -0500
From: David Green <david@ninch.org>
Subject: UPDATE ON DIGITAL COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
May 29, 1998
UPDATE ON DIGITAL COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION
While preparing my own summary of recent developments in Copyright
Legislation, I'm forwarding Page Miller's useful update on recent House
developments.
David Green
===========
>Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 15:41:33 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Page Miller <pagem@CapAccess.org>
>To: david@cni.org
>>
From:
>NCC Washington Update, vol. 4, #20, May 28, 1998
> by Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating
> Committee for the Promotion of History <pagem@capaccess.org>
>
SNIP....
>4. Update on House Digital Copyright Legislation -- On April 1 the House
>Judiciary Committee approved by a large majority H.R. 2281, the World
>Intellectual Property Organization Treaties Implementation Act which also
>includes a section that limits the copyright infringement liability of
>on-line Internet service providers. On May 22 the House Judiciary
>Committee filed House Report 105-551, Part I on H.R. 2281, which may be
>seen on the Library of Congress "Thomas" WEB sites http://thomas.loc.gov.
>The report states that the legislation does "not require any change in the
>substance of copyright rights or exceptions in U.S. law" but instead
>involves two technical additions to the copyright bill needed to comply
>with the World Intellectual Property Organization treaties. The first
>technical addition deals with preventing the use of encryption devices to
>break into secured on-line protected or licensing systems. The other one
>makes it unlawful to alter or to intentionally provide false information
>on the Internet about copyrighted material. While the report stresses
>that the legislation involves only technical changes, there is concerning
>in the scholarly and library communities that there may be unintended
>consequences that could prove harmful to education and scholarly
>research. The House bill does not include sections on distance education
>and digital preservation for libraries and archives that are in the Senate
>bill, S.2037, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which the
>Senate passed 99 to 0 on May 14.
>
>On May 22 the House also referred H.R. 2281 to the Commerce and Ways and
>Means Committees. These committees have until June 19 to consider any
>provisions of this bill that may fall under their jurisdictions.
>
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>NCC invites you to redistribute the NCC Washington Updates.
>A complete backfile of these reports is maintained by H-Net.
>See World Wide Web: http://h-net.msu.edu/~ncc/
>* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>
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