ALAWON v4n25 (March 18, 1995) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/alawon/alawon-v4n25 ****Begin File******************Begin File*******************Begin File**** *************************************************************************** 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 *************************************************************************** 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. *************************************************************************** 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. *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC 20002-5675. Internet: alawash@alawash.org; Phone: 202-547-4440; Fax: 202-547-7363. Contributing to this issue: Anne A. Heanue; Editor: Lynne E. Bradley (leb@alawash.org). ALAWON is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe ala-wo [your name]" to listserv@uicvm (Bitnet) or listserv@uicvm.uic.edu (Internet). Back issues and other documents are available from the list server. To find out what's available, send the message "send ala-wo filelist" to the listserv. The ALA-WO filelist contains the list of files with the exact filename and filetype. To get a particular file, issue the command "send filename filetype" to the listserv. Do not include the quotes in your commands. All materials in the newsletter subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. For other reprinting or redistribution, address requests to the ALA Washington Office (alawash@alawash.org). ***************************************************************************