Thu, 1 Oct 1998 22:08:45 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 1 Oct 1998 22:03:01 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 22:03:01 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Threat to Free Speech in Copyright Law "The bill, which would overturn 200+ years of Copyright law without the benefit of even a single Senate hearing, creates a new form of intellectual property for databases....The bill would impact myriad databases, ranging from a list of 100 chemical compounds in an experimental drug or the 5,000 brightest stars in the galaxy to a new Web-based collection of publicly-available stock quotes. However, rather than protect the creative organization or selection of the information, as copyright law does, this new right would, in effect, allow control of the facts themselves." FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- September 29, 1998 Congress Poised to Turn Back 200+ Years of Intellectual Property Law for Databases Broad Private and Public Sector Coalition Rallies Behind FTC Letter to Congress Raising Serious Flaws in Bill Washington, DC -- The Federal Trade Commission sent Congress a letter today outlining several serious flaws in a legislative attempt to create new intellectual property protections for databases. An unprecedented private and public sector coalition immediately rallied behind the letter, which follows similar communications from the Departments of Commerce and Justice, and called on Congress to defer consideration of the "Collections of Information Anti-Piracy Act," to the next session when necessary hearings could be scheduled. "No entirely new intellectual property regime should be created without thorough vetting by all affected parties, least of all one opposed by many of the very businesses for whose benefit it was supposedly offered," said Jean Cantrell of Dun & Bradstreet. The bill, which would overturn 200+ years of Copyright law without the benefit of even a single Senate hearing, creates a new form of intellectual property for databases that was tacked onto the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the House of Representatives hours before passage. The Senate passed a much different form of the DMCA, which did not include database protection. A conference committee has begun meetings to reconcile the two versions. The bill would impact myriad databases, ranging from a list of 100 chemical compounds in an experimental drug or the 5,000 brightest stars in the galaxy to a new Web-based collection of publicly-available stock quotes. However, rather than protect the creative organization or selection of the information, as copyright law does, this new right would, in effect, allow control of the facts themselves. "This would put simple facts under potential lock and key for the first time in our history," said Adam Eisgrau of the American Library Association. "This 'sea change' in American intellectual property law will have been made despite the principled opposition of a 'Who's Who' in the public and private sectors and without benefit of a single minute of formal scrutiny by the Senate," he added. "The database bill will undermine our much-hailed 'information economy,'" said Jonathan Band, representing the Online Banking Association. "This bill will overprotect information and chill creation of innovative products and services. Many exciting new Internet endeavors involve fact-based information services. These companies and individuals draw information from many sources, reorganize it, combine it with other information and offer valuable new products and services to online consumers. Under the proposed bill, such activities could trigger liability." "In the end it is the individual investors who will be hurt," concluded Frank Kelly of Charles Schwab, Inc. in echoing concerns held by industry representatives about the monopoly power this new right would confer, particularly for industries based upon a sole-source provider of information. Brokerage houses already experiencing price increases for access to stock quote information worry that the stock exchanges could considerably hike prices. This point was also emphasized in the FTC letter to Congress today. "The FTC largely got it right," added Alex Fowler of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "If we're to successfully deal with online piracy of databases, it must not happen at the expense of what made the Internet possible in the first place, namely Internet users building an open platform for accessing, collecting, and linking together bits of information." The education and research communities will be perhaps the first to feel the affects of this new legislation. "We worry that the costs of time and money this bill triggers will hinder science and research, delay some projects and possibly kill others. The advancement of knowledge depends on a researcher's ability to access and utilize data," said Mark Frankel, Director of the Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and Law Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The coalition called for the House and Senate conferees to remove the database bill from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. "The database bill has nothing to do with implementing the World Intellectual Property Organization treaties and should not be part of this bill," said Prue Adler, of the Association of Research Libraries. "We can achieve a workable and balanced compromise on database protection if Congress makes time for all interested parties to engage in serious discussions." The broad spectrum of groups that oppose the database bill include Internet companies, research scientists, value-added database providers, librarians, consumer groups, educators, online brokerage and banking firms, free speech organizations, telecommunications companies and computer manufacturers. "These organizations and the people and industries they represent all recognize the value of public access to knowledge and information," noted Peter Jaszi, American University Law Professor. Among the groups which have communicated concerns about the database legislation to Congress are: Amdahl Corporation American Association for the Advancement of Science American Association of Law Libraries American Association of Legal Publishers American Committee for Interoperable Systems American Historical Association American Library Association Art Libraries Society of North America Association of American Geographers Association of Research Libraries AT&T Ball Research, Inc. Bell Atlantic Bloomberg Financial Markets Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Chief Officers of State Library Associations College Art Association Commercial Internet eXchange Association Computer & Communications Industry Associations Conference on College Composition and Communication Consortium of Social Science Associations Consortium for School Networking Consumer Project for Technology Digital Future Coalition Dun & Bradstreet Electronic Frontier Foundation Emerging Communications, Inc. Hyperlaw, Inc. Information Technology Association of America International Society for Technology in Education MCI WorldCom, Inc. Medical Library Association Modern Language Association Music Library Association National Association of Elementary School Principals National Council of Teachers of English National Education Association National Humanities Alliance National Writers Union NetAction Online Banking Association Practice Management Information Corporation Society of American Archivists Special Libraries Association Storage Technology Corporation Sun Microsystems United States Catholic Conference Yahoo!, Inc. CONTACT INFORMATION Adam Eisgrau, American Library Association, (202) 628-8410, E-mail < Marc Pearl, Information Technology Association of America, (703) 284-5351, E-mail < Prue Adler, Association of Research Libraries, (202) 296-2296, E-mail < Jonathan Band, Online Banking Association, (202) 887-1555, E-mail < Alex Fowler, Electronic Frontier Foundation, (415) 436-9333, E-mail < LINKS TO FURTHER INFORMATION Letter from Federal Trade Commission to Congress, September 28, 1998 (Not on the Web, yet...check http://www.ftc.gov) Letter to the Senate from 47 Companies and Organizations that Oppose the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act, September 10, 1998 http://www.dfc.org/issues/database/jntltr/jntltr.html Letter from Department of Commerce to Senate, August 4, 1998 http://www.itaa.org/dbadmin.htm Letter from Department of Justice to Clinton Administration, July 28, 1998 http://www.acm.org/usacm/copyright/doj-hr2652-memo.html Also check... The Digital Future Coalition http://www.dfc.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Alexander Fowler Director of Public Affairs Electronic Frontier Foundation E-mail: afowler@eff.org Tel: 415 436 9333; Fax 415 436 9993 You can find EFF on the Web at < EFF supports the Global Internet Liberty Campaign < ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~