1. Copyright Hearing
2. Trudy Peterson Heads Open Society Archives
3. Istook Lobbying Amendment Removed from Continuing Resolution
1. Copyright Hearing -- On November 15 the House Subcommittee on Courts
and Intellectual Property and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held
a joint hearing to consider changes to the Copyright Act proposed by HR
2441 and S 1284, the National Information Infrastructure Copyright
Protection Act of 1995. (Details of this legislation were covered in the
NCC Washington Update, #56 on November 2). The sponsors of these bills
have stated that this legislation seeks to clarify copyright law in order
to unleash the economic potential of the Internet, and they stressed that
copyright owners won't make information available in cyberspace until it
can be protected.
The three witnesses -- Bruce Lehman, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and
Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks; Marybeth Peters, Register of
Copyrights; and Mihaly Ficsor, Assistant Director General of the World
Intellectual Property Organization -- all endorsed the legislation.
However, Peters suggested some refinements to the section dealing with
the making of digital copies by libraries and archives for preservation
purposes. She also indicated that the legislation may offer only a short
term solution to the challenges posed by the digital environment, stating
that within the next few years, a more fundamental rethinking of the
premise and structure of the Copyright Act may be necessary. Peters
expressed concern about maintaining the essential balance of the
copyright system by preserving its most fundamental values; she said
these include appropriate exceptions to further the public interest.
During the question and answer period, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-U) asked
whether international negotiations could overtake the United States
legislative process and about the first sales doctrine. Rep. Carlos
Moorhead (R-CA) asked about the implications of the legislation on
"browsing" in the electronic environment. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked questions about potential liability of
operators of bulletin boards. Rep. Robert Goodlatte (R-VA) asked about
encryption and the impact of this legislation on software companies, and
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) inquired about how this legislation would
affect the "fair use" doctrine.
Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-CO) said that some critics of the bill call it
a "wish list" for industry and corporate welfare. In addition critics
have also charged that it will stifle the innovate use of the Internet.
In disagreeing with this characterization, Lehman said that the
Administration realized that its "Green Paper" on this subject released
over a year ago had been heavily geared to commercial issues. However,
he said that in proposing this legislation there was no intention to
strip from users the rights that they have always enjoyed. He added that
the Administration wants to preserve interlibrary loan in the digital
environment. This complex issue was only mentioned with no further
discussion.
Both Lehman and Peters emphasized that this bill proposed fairly minor
changes to the copyright law. Yet, they warned that we could be entering
a chaotic situation if there is not clarification, specially of the
section relating to transmission of copies to indicate the copyright
owners' control over the digital transmission of their work. There will
be additional hearings in January on this legislation, which many members
of the Congressional panel recognize raises extremely complex issues.
2. Trudy Peterson Heads Open Society Archives -- Trudy Huskamp Peterson,
who served for over two years as acting Archivist of the United States,
has been named Executive Director of the Open Society Archives in
Budapest, Hungary. The archives of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
Inc. are the core of the current holdings. "The Open Society Archives
has set as its goal," Peterson said, "preserving and making available for
research use historical material that further the understanding of post-
World War II events in the region, as well as human rights activities
around the world." The Open Society Archives was founded in 1995 by
financier and philanthropist George Soros. Full reference service will
begin in January 1996. Peterson may be contacted by e-mail at
peterson@ceu.hu
3. Lobbying Amendment Removed from Continuing Resolution - In considering
the Continuing Resolution, the temporary funding bill that was later
vetoed by the President, the Senate voted on November 9 to attach a much
more moderate version of the Istook Amendment on lobbying than the one
passed by the House. When the House voted the following day, November
10, on the Senate version of the Continuing Resolution, they voted to
strike the weakened lobbying provision. However, Representatives Ernest
Istook (R-OK), David McIntosh (R-IN), and Robert Ehrlich (R-MD) noted
that they had urged the Republican leadership to work with them to get
this measure passed through some other vehicle.
Since early summer Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) has been attempting to add
an amendment to various bills that would greatly restrict the lobbying
activities of nonprofit organizations. An early version would have
applied to all nonprofit organizations with an annual budget over $1
million and would have included several historical organizations. This
amendment expands the definition of lobbying to include contact with the
executive and judicial branches, as well as the legislative branch. The
filing of amicus briefs, for example, would be considered lobbying. The
bill adds burdensome paperwork requirements and greatly minimizes the
amount of contact associations can have with the three branches of
government. The modest lobbying activities of many professional and
scholarly organizations would have to be curtailed if the Istook
amendment in several of its versions should become law. The Istook
Amendment also included a "bounty hunter" provision under which any
private citizen could sue an organization for violating this act and
split triple damages with the government. Opponents of the Istook
Amendment argue that the IRS code already includes significant limits on
lobbying activities of non-profit organizations and that the sponsors of
this bill can cite no violations. Even the columnist George Will who
favors some aspects of the Istook amendment has said that "it would erect
a litigation-breeding regulatory regime of baroque complexity regarding
political expression." In the floor debate on this issue, a number of
Senators noted the historic partnership that has existed between
nonprofits and the federal government and stressed that the nonprofit
community has a valuable perspective and that its views should be heard
and not suppressed.
On November 16 the House supporters of the Istook amendment may attempt
to attach a new version of the bill to the Lobby Reform Legislation.
While this legislation is geared toward campaign reform, it does include
a section on nonprofits which seeks to clarify existing IRS limitations
on lobbying by nonprofits. Istook and McIntosh have indicated that they
would like to add to the Lobby Reform Legislation the whistleblower or
bounty provision and additional reporting and disclosure provisions for
nonprofits that receive federal grants.
--------------------------------------------------------------
H-Net subscribers are invited to redistribute the NCC reports.
The NCC is a coalition of 53 scholarly organizations, including
H-Net. NCC is the history profession's lobby in Washington, and
its positions reflect the consensus of its member organizations.
--------------------------------------------------------------
--