[12205] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
oppose S2037--call your Senator (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael S. Hart)
Wed May 13 20:16:00 1998
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 14:22:29 -0500
From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 08:45:58 -0400
From: Eric Eldred <eldred@mediaone.net>
Reply-To: EricEldred@usa.net
To: spok+bookpeople@cs.cmu.edu
Subject: oppose S2037--call your Senator
The WIPO copyright bill is coming to a vote in
the Senate and is expected to pass. You might
wish to read it and determine if it will affect
your current practices. If you believe it will
hurt your ability to put works online, it might
be time to telephone your Senator.
the full text of the bill is at
http://www.aop.org/legis/wipo.html/
I think it seems to read that if anyone leaves
off in a reprint the full title, the author, or any other
copyright-related information from a work which
is copyrighted under the Berne Convention, then
the person is subject to a $500,000 fine and
5 years in jail. But since it is rather difficult
for ordinary Americans to determine this information,
given that the work would seemingly not have to be
registered with the U.S. copyright office, and there
is little reference to fair use here, the penalties
seem extraordinarily severe.
I believe that S2037 (and others to come) will
significantly affect our work, in spite of the
exemptions for ISPs and online services.
The prohibitions on reverse engineering of copyright
mechanisms appear to be intended to protect music
producers, but may inadvertently affect readers of
online books since it would seem to prevent such
works from re-entering the public domain when the
copyright period expires. This would seem to me a
definite violation of the reasons that our law
protects authors' works under copyright.
It's a bit too late to discuss the bill here,
but I would urge you to call your Senator if
you have feelings about it. It's too much to expect
Congress to narrow copyright protection; these bills
to gratuitously widen copyright are introduced every
year on behalf of large copyright holders such as
music and Hollywood companies.
In the next few weeks, other U.S. Senate bills will
come to the floor relating to online books, such as
requiring filters on library computers and others,
and you will also want to read them and discuss them
with your Senators. Stay in touch and thanks for
reading.
--
"Eric" Eric Eldred mailto:eldred@mediaone.net
http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/ "Eldritch Press"
--
"Eric" Eric Eldred mailto:eldred@mediaone.net
http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/ "Eldritch Press"
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