ALAWON v4n25 (March 18, 1995)
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v4n25

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                                                                  ISSN 1069-7799
                                     ALAWON
                         ALA Washington Office Newsline
                        An electronic publication of the
                 American Library Association Washington Office
 
                              Volume 4, Number 25
                                 March 18, 1995
 
   In this issue: (133 lines)
     NII COPYRIGHT AWARENESS CAMPAIGN INITIATED
     COPYRIGHT TERM EXTENSION ACT INTRODUCED
 
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                   NII COPYRIGHT AWARENESS CAMPAIGN INITIATED
 
Effective education of the public about intellectual property rights is the
focus of a National Information Infrastructure (NII) Copyright Awareness
Campaign.  The first meeting of the Campaign will be held on March 21 at
the Department of Education.  ALA will be represented by Ed Valauskas,
chair of ALA's Committee on Legislation Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Copyright.
 
This meeting was announced in the March 8 _Federal Register_, pp. 12744-5,
where it stated that the meeting would be open to the public.  Information
on subsequent meetings may be obtained by calling Alan Wright at (703) 305-
9300.
 
The campaign was developed as a result of a recommendation in the
preliminary draft of the report, "Intellectual Property and the National
Information Infrastructure," released in 1994 by the Working Group on
Intellectual Property Rights of the White House Information Infrastructure
Task Force.  The report stated that the Working Group would sponsor a
conference to develop curricula that may be used in schools and libraries
to educate the public about intellectual property rights in the NII
environment.
 
According to the _Federal Register_ notice, the Copyright Awareness
Campaign intends to bring together public and private educators,
representing all levels of elementary, secondary, and post-secondary
education, as well as copyright owners and users to formulate public
awareness strategies and develop model curricula regarding the use of
protected intellectual property on the NII.  In addition to developing
substantive curricula, the campaign will also explore how best to
disseminate such curricula.
 
The campaign is not intended to be a forum for further elaboration on the
issue of educational fair use, which is currently under discussion in the
Conference on Fair Use that began in September 1994.  Valauskas also
represents ALA at the fair use meetings.
 
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                    COPYRIGHT TERM EXTENSION ACT INTRODUCED
 
On March 2, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Chair of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, introduced S. 483, the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1995 (see
the March 2 _Congressional Record_, pp. S 3390-4.)  Hatch was joined by
Senators Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Fred Thompson (R-TN).  In his
introductory statement, Hatch said the bill's purpose is to increase
existing copyright terms by the addition of a further 20 years of
protection to the current period of life of the creator plus an additional
50 years.
 
Hatch also said that if S. 483 becomes law, "Every work created after the
effective date...will be prospectively protected for the remainder of the
author's life and for 70 years thereafter.  Works in existence on that date
will receive the identical protection, if their author is still living.  As
for the works of authors already decreased (sic), my bill provides an
additional 20 years of protection; provided, that the works have not, on
the effective date of the bill, already gone into the public domain."
 
Those works whose term of protection under the current Copyright Act is not
tied to the life of an author but is a fixed term of years, such as works
made for hire, will also receive an additional 20 years of protection.
Where they are protected for 75 years under present law, they will be
protected for 95 years under the provisions of S. 483.  Protection for
anonymous and pseudonymous works would be extended from 100 to 120 years.
Hatch believes that with the extension of copyright for an additional 20
years, "authors will reap the full benefits to which they are entitled from
the exploitation of their creative works.  In addition, there are
significant trade benefits to be obtained by extending copyright in the
United States to bring our law into conformity with the longer copyright
terms enjoyed by authors in other nations."
 
Although the current U.S. basic copyright terms of life plus 50 years is
the prevailing international standard, Hatch observed that Germany and
Spain have for some time recognized respectively terms of life plus 70
years and life plus 80 years.  Portugal provides a perpetual term of
protection.  Senator Feinstein said that the bill is backed by movie and
music companies, books and music publishers, performing rights societies,
and major software producing firms.
 
A similar bill, H.R. 989, was introduced in the House of Representatives on
February 16 by Representatives Carol Moorhead (R-CA), Patricia Schroeder
(D-CO), Howard Coble (R-NC), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Sonny Bono (R-CA),
George Gekas (R-PA), Howard Berman (D-CA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Bob
Clement (D-TN), and Elton Gallegly (R-CA).  (See _Congressional Record_,
pp. H 1907 and E 379.)  In his introductory remarks, Moorhead said he
intends to schedule hearings on this issue in early summer.
 
The ALA Washington Office would welcome comments about the potential
effects of the bill on library service and use of copyrighted works by the
public.
 
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ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the American Library
Association Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC
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Fax: 202-547-7363.  Contributing to this issue:  Anne A. Heanue; Editor:
Lynne E. Bradley (leb@alawash.org).
 
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