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copyright law fyi: handy listserv/sites (fwd)




Normally I don't like to raise strictly political issues on a list like
this but these are up for floor debate and particularly nefarious.  I
don't know if a project like jake would survive if HR 354 passes and is
enforced...



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 13:02:30 -0500 (EST)
From: Daniel Chudnov <daniel.chudnov@yale.edu>
Subject: copyright law fyi: handy listserv/sites


There's been a flurry of news recently about pending legislation that
would affect database access, software licensing, and what copyright means
in general.  Those of you active in ALA or who get the LJ Newswire
probably already know about this (maybe these things are linked from
obvious places already, too), but there are some good links from the ALA
site which provide summaries of UCITA, the H.R. 354/1858 bills pending,
and so forth.

UCITA (the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act) was proposed as
a "model" law to state legislatures.  If I understand the hubbub properly,
it provides (among other things) sweeping rights to software publishers to
"turn off" your license of a particular application if they deem you have
violated your license.  This is scary.  Many (including myself) have had a
"no one will ever pass this law" attitude, but apparently the Virginia
House has just done so:

  http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ec/xml/00/02/14/000214ecucita.xml

ALA's page describing what this is all about is here:

  http://www.ala.org/washoff/ucita.html


Another pending area of legislation might provide excessive rights of
database ownership to producers.  There are competing bills; ALA and other
academic and commercial institutions oppose HR 354 on this topic, and
favor HR 1858 instead.  Apparently HR 354 might make it illegal to do
things like post a subject-focused endnote library on the web at our
library if the citations came from a privately published database, and it
might alter the copyright fair use laws in a way which could destroy the
"public domain" nature of some information like what we're putting into
jake.

The ALA copyright page has issue briefs explaining this and why HR 1858
would be better:

  http://www.ala.org/washoff/copyright.html

(see "Database Protection Legislation" under Issue Briefs, also good are
the Related Links to databasedata.org and such.)



If you want to stay on top of these issues and news, you might want to
consider subscribing to the ALA Washington Office Newsline (ALAWON), which
provides irregular updates of pending activities via a listserv:

  http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon/



Hopefully this message isn't terribly redundant with other news sources
y'all follow.  But then again, I already said that.  :)

  -Dan


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