1. House Passes Omnibus FY'96 Spending Bill
2. Update on Cuts at the Center of Military History
3. Appeals Court to Rehear Course Pack Case
4. Senate Copyright Hearing Set for May 7
1. House Passes Omnibus FY'96 Spending Bill -- After passing a
24 hour extension to the April 24 expiration date of the
Continuing Resolution, the House passed on April 24, shortly
before midnight, an Omnibus Spending bill for FY'96. This bill
will fund the nine cabinet departments and dozens of agencies
whose appropriations bills for 1996 had not been passed. The
House restored funding to a number of education, job training,
and environmental programs, including funding for the Goals 2000
educational initiatives.
For some time the sticking points that had prevented an agreement
were over issues unrelated to the funding level of history
related programs. The funding for NEH in the Omnibus Spending
bill is $110 million, as had been expected, and the funding for
historic preservation programs is the same as in earlier
continuing resolutions. The controversial provisions introduced
by Representative Ernest Istook (R-OK) -- which called for the
addition of extensive record keeping requirements for nonprofit
organizations that receive federal grants -- were dropped from
the bill.
Prior to the midnight April 25 expiration of the 24-hour
Continuing Resolution, the Senate is expected to pass the bill
and send it to the President for his signature, thus averting
another partial government shutdown.
2. Update on Cuts at the Center of Military History -- As had
been anticipated, high level staff at the Pentagon received a
briefing on April 16 that recommended a 30% cut in the staff of
the Center of Military History. However it appears that the top
leadership of the Army have not yet signed off on the
recommendation. Those familiar with the value of this program
and the importance of a historical perspective within the Army
are continuing to seek a reconsideration of the 30% cut.
Indications are that the program will remain in the Washington
area and could move to the vacated commissary building at Fort
McNair. However this building is being refurbished and it could
take up to two years before the work on it is completed. The
timetable for the cuts is another item of discussion. It appears
that 50% of the cut may be targeted for completion by October 1,
1997, and the other 50% by October 1, 1998. But as stated above,
no final decision has been made.
3. Appeals Court Grants Rehearing of Course Pack Case -- In
mid-April the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
"effectively dissolved" the decision that had been handed down on
February 12 which ruled in favor of the Michigan Document
Services and against the plaintiffs -- Princeton University
Press, Macmillan, and St. Martin's Press -- in case No 94-1778.
In that decision the three-judge panel ruled that the copying of
excerpts without author's permission was allowable in course
packs. The judges stated that although the copy shop is a
commercial enterprise, the copying of course packs for
educational purposes falls under the "fair use" provision of the
copyright act. This Sixth Circuit Court has said that all 16
judges would serve as a panel to rehear the case and deliver an
opinion. No date has been set for the rehearing.
An important factor in this case is that the ruling resulted for
motions for summary judgment, that is the judges reached their
conclusions based on briefs prepared by the plaintiffs and the
defendants but there was no trial in which there were oral
arguments and cross questioning.
The Sixth Circuit Court made no mention in its February 14 ruling
of the Kinko's Case and there is some confusion about the
relationship of Kinko's case to the Michigan Documents Services
case. A Federal District Court in New York ruled in 1991 that
Kinko's violated the "fair use" provision of the copyright act
when it copied chapters for course packs without securing
permission from the publishers. The Kinko's case was not
appealed because as a part of the final settlement Kinko's waived
its opportunity to appeal the case. Following the Kinko's case
there has evolved a general practice by which many copy shops do
secure permission for all materials to be included in course
packs. However, since the Kinko's decision occurred in the
Federal District Court for the district of Manhattan, the ruling
strictly applies only to cases in that jurisdiction. The
Michigan Document Services case had moved from the district court
level to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals which has
jurisdiction over the states of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and
Tennessee. Although the Kinko's and the Michigan Documents
Services rulings affect only persons living in the jurisdiction
of the ruling court, it is clear that much confusion surrounds
the course pack issue no matter where one lives.
4. Senate Copyright Hearing Set for May 7 -- The Senate
Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing on the morning of May
7 for public witnesses to testify on S.1284, the National
Information Infrastructure Copyright Protection Act, a bill to
adapt copyright law to the digital, networked environment of the
information highway.
This hearing had originally been scheduled for March 27 and had
to be postponed. It is expected that issues of "fair use" will
be addressed in this hearing.
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