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House bills affecting copyright
I recently examined all the current bills respecting copyright for a copyright talk I gave at a recent conference. I concluded that several of the pending bills are overbroad in that they prohibit certain conduct in all cases, whether or not that conduct would fall with current exceptions to the Copyright Act that protect users rights to information. This is true of H.R. 2281. However, I would recommend support for H.R. 3048, the Digital Era Copyright Enhancement Act. It clarifies fair use and first sale exceptions with respect to digital transmission and reproduction, strengthens the library and archival exemptions, provides exceptions for ephemeral digital copies and for distance learning, contains a strong copyright preemption provision that isn't limited by freedom of contract, and implements the WIPO Copyright Treaty in a manner that protects users' rights to defeat technological protections for legitimate purposes. This is a much better bill than H.R. 2281, which abrogates users' rights to public domain materials and fair uses of copyrighted materials. Incidentally, the other bill recently mentioned here, H.R. 2652, the database protection bill, raises additional concerns about users' rights, because it allows database vendors to defeat the "safe harbors" by using take-it-or-leave-it licenses (e.g., click-on or shrink-wrap). This bill is supposed to implement provisions of the WIPO Database Treaty, but that treaty has not been adopted, and even if it were, it's terms are much less restrictive that H.R. 2652. Thus, this bill is not only premature but also overbroad, although I do not think it's quite as dangerous as H.R. 2281. Publishers insist that this legislation is necessary to preserve the market for databases, but there's nothing to indicate that that market has eroded or will erode under current law. In fact, the market appears to be flourishing. Just my opinion... Terry Cullen Electronic Services Librarian Seattle University Law Library 950 Broadway Plaza Tacoma, WA 98402-4470 253-591-7092
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