by Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating
Committee for the Promotion of History <pagem@CapAccess.org>
1. House Postpones Vote on NEH Appropriations
2. House Hearing on Extension of Copyright
3. Zero Funding Proposed for Declassification Oversight Office
1. House Postpones Vote on NEH -
The House began deliberation of H.R. 1977, the Interior
Appropriation bill for FY'96 at 10 am July 13. With over 70
amendments under consideration and after various time consuming
parliamentary maneuvers, they adjourned late in the evening without
considering the NEH budget. At 10:30 pm Ralph Regula (R-OH), chair of
the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, indicated in an interview on
C-Span that it may be Tuesday before the House votes on the NEH budget
for next year.
2. House Hearing on Extension of Copyright -
On July 13 the Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property of
the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to consider H.R. 989, a
bill to amend title 17, United States Code, to extend copyright for 20
years. The concern of historians and archivists about the impact of
this legislation on scholarly use of old, unpublished material was a
very small footnote in the hearing. The major impetus for passage for
this legislation comes from the fact that the copyright law for the
European Union member states, which are among the greatest users of
our copyrighted works, is now the life of the author plus 70 years.
Thus there was a desire to bring United States copyright law into
conformity with that of the European Union. Strong support for the
bill also comes from composers, their heirs, and the music industry.
Many of the great musical works of George Gershwin, Irving Berlin,
Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II will be entering the public
domain, (some already have) if the legislation is not passed. The
heirs of these composers will lose their royalty income. However,
opposition to the legislation also came from those sympathetic to the
composers, who claimed that music publishers -- the owners of the
copyright in many cases -- and not the composers stand to gain from
H.R. 989.
Amid the debate over the commercial ramifications of H.R. 989 and
even about how its passage could have a positive effect on the U.S.
trade balance, there was a brief discussion of the section of the bill
dealing with unpublished material and its impact on scholarly
research. Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyright, who supported much
of the bill, stated that the Copyright Office does not endorse the
proposed extension for unpublished material. She noted that in the
1976 Copyright Act, all unpublished works in existence before January
1, 1978, even letters and diaries dating back to the 18th century,
were automatically given copyright protection until December 31, 2002.
Pointing out the difficulty of finding heirs of very old unpublished
material to grant permission for use, she stressed the negative impact
this legislation would have on the Library of Congress which would
like to make many of its historic photos, letters, and manuscripts
available to the American public through its digital library, which is
currently being developed.
Michael Les Benedict, Professor of History at Ohio State
University and President-Elect of the Society for the History of the
Gilded Age and Progressive Era, prepared on behalf of the National
Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History a written
statement that was given to members of the subcommittee prior to the
hearing. Benedict's testimony urged that the committee reject the
small portion of H.R. 989 which would replace the expiration date of
December 31, 2002 with that of December 31, 2012 for copyright in
works created but not published or copyrighted before January 1, 1978.
He stressed that the canons of scholarly research require responsible
biographers, historians, and others engaged in historical research to
draw upon and quote from unpublished primary source materials.
3. Zero Funding Proposed for Declassification Oversight Office -
The House Appropriations Committee voted on July 12 to eliminate
funding for the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), which
has responsibility for overseeing classification and declassification
policy and ensuring the implementation of the President's recent
Executive Order on declassification. Steven Aftergood of the
Federation of American Scientists has stated that the elimination of
ISOO would seriously gut the entire secrecy reform effort of the last
several years. Additionally troubling about this decision was the
Appropriations Committee's recommendation that the National Archives
assume the functions of the terminated ISOO within the Archives'
existing budget. Many who follow this issue closely have observed
that the National Archives has neither the authority nor the resources
to assume this additional task.
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