EFFector Online Newsletter

  Vol. 11, No. 6               May 11, 1998               [email protected]
  A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation     ISSN 1062-9424

 IN THIS ISSUE

    * IMMEDIATE ACTION ALERT, MAY 12 DEADLINE: CONTACT REPRESENTATIVES
      AGAIN TO OPPOSE DATABASE BILL
        1. SUMMARY
        2. IMMEDIATE ACTION TO TAKE
        3. SAMPLE PHONE "SCRIPT" & SAMPLE FAX
        4. BACKGROUND
    * ADMINISTRIVIA

  See http://www.eff.org for more information on EFF activities &
  alerts!
    _________________________________________________________________


 IMMEDIATE ACTION ALERT, MAY 12 DEADLINE

  CONTACT REPRESENTATIVES AGAIN TO OPPOSE DATABASE BILL

           The Electronic Frontier Foundation       May 4, 1998

  Please distribute widely to appropriate forums, no later than May 20,
                                  1998.

 1. SUMMARY

    * Latest News:
      Please call your Representative on Tue. May 12 to oppose
      anti-science, anti-journalism bill H.R. 2652. House "Collections
      of Information Antipiracy" bill, which would create a new property
      right in databases and make criminal many uses of uncopyrightable
      public-domain information without express permission from a
      database supplier, was scheduled to be voted on by the House last
      week. That vote was postponed, and is to take place Tue., May 12.
      Bill is on the fast track in the House and dangerously likely to
      be passed!
    * What You Can Do Now:
      Follow the directions below and call/fax your own Representatives.
      Ask them to oppose creation of copyright-like protections for
      public-domain information that cannot be copyrighted. Explain that
      no new legislation is needed - the database industry is more
      lucrative now than ever - and that this bill harms all citizens'
      fair use rights and undermines scientific and other inquiry,
      simply to give database companies a new "right" to own and control
      information itself.

 2. IMMEDIATE ACTION TO TAKE

  Free speech and fair use supporters are asked to IMMEDIATELY contact
  their own Representatives, as well as House leaders, and ask them to
  to vote against the database bill, H.R. 2652, expected to pass or fail
  on the House floor on May 12, 1998. This contact shouldn't take more
  than TWO MINUTES per office.

  Urge your Representatives to refrain from voting away your right to
  know and use plain facts because some companies demand special
  privileges to control and charge for the use of public-domain
  information.

  Feel free to make use of the sample fax and phone "script" below.

  (We regret that some readers, due to Net-related delays or for other
  reasons, may not receive this alert in time to act. Sometimes Congress
  moves quickly, leaving us with insufficient warning to issue an alert
  early enough for all readers to receive it in time.)

   LOOKING UP YOUR REPRESENTATIVE'S CONTACT INFO

  See EFF's Contacting Congress factsheet at http://www.eff.org/congress
  which provides links to places to look up who your legislator is if
  necessary, and to obtain their phone and fax numbers. Please PHONE
  first, FAX second. Time is short enough that some of the faxes may
  simply not make it in time.
  If you can spare a few extra minutes, try working your way down this
  list of House leadership, as well as contacting your own Rep:


Party      Last Name, First Name      Voice Phone        Fax
 State/Dist
  -----------------------------------------------------------------
  R GA/06 Gingrich, Newt             1-202-225-4501  1-202-225-4656+
  R TX/26 Armey, Richard             1-202-225-7772  1-202-226-8100+
  D MO/03 Gephardt, Richard          1-202-225-2671  1-202-225-7452+
  R TX/22 DeLay, Tom                 1-202-225-5951  1-202-225-5241
  D MI/10 Bonior, David              1-202-225-2106  1-202-226-1169
  R OH/08 Boehner, John              1-202-225-6205  1-202-225-0704
  R CA/47 Cox, Christopher           1-202-225-5611  1-202-225-9177
  D CA/03 Fazio, Vic                 1-202-225-5716  1-202-225-5141
  D MD/05 Hoyer, Steny               1-202-225-4131  1-202-225-4300

  (+ These are the most important to contact - call/fax them first.)

  House leaders are, respectively: Speaker, Majority Leader, Minority
  Leader, Maj. Whip, Min. Whip, Republican Conference Chair, Rep. Policy
  Committee Chair, Democratic Caucus Chair, Dem. Steering Cmte. Chair

 3. SAMPLE PHONE "SCRIPT" & SAMPLE FAX

  If you would like to both call, and send a fax, this extra action
  would certainly help.

  For best results, try to put this in your own (short!) words, and be
  calmly emotive without being hostile.

  IF YOU ARE A CONSTITUENT (i.e., you live in the same district as the
  Rep. you are contacting) make sure to say so. For example "I am a
  constituent, and I'm calling/writing because...."

  IF YOU REPRESENT A COMPANY OR ORGANIZATION, say so: "I'm Jane Person
  from Personal Technologies Inc. of Austin. I'm calling on behalf of
  Personal Technologies to ask the Representative to...." Business
  interests carry a lot of weight with many legislators, especially if
  they are in the legislator's home district. Legislators also generally
  heed organizational voices over individiual ones. On this issue
  especially, legislators needs to hear a commercial viewpoint OPPOSING
  this bill.

   PHONE "SCRIPT"

    You: [ring ring]

    Legislative staffer: Hello, Representative Lastname's office.

    You: I'm calling to urge Representative Lastname to REJECT the
    so-called "Collections of Information Antipiracy Act", H.R. 2652.
    This bill is missing key definitions and creates new property
    rights in databases and the raw data contained in them, at the
    expense of ALL citizens' rights to know and use plain facts and
    information. This bill threatens fair use and freedom of speech and
    press. The database industry has not proven any need for this
    legislation, and it is simply yet another attempt to extend
    copyright-like protection to public-domain material that can't be
    copyrighted. The bill is not responsive to WIPO treaty language and
    it provides for excessive and injust penalties. There is no need
    for this legislation, and I urge Representative Lastname to REJECT
    H.R. 2652. Thank you.

    Staffer: OK, thanks. [click]

  It's that easy.

  You can optionally ask to speak to the legislator's technology &
  intellectual property staffer. You probably won't get to, but the
  message may have more weight if you succeed. The staffer who first
  answers the phone probably won't be the tech/i.p. staffer.

   SAMPLE FAX

  See above for how to get relevant Congressional fax numbers. Please,
  if you have the time, write your own 1-3 paragraph letter in your own
  words, rather than send a copy of this sample letter. (However,
  sending a copy of the sample letter is far better than taking no
  action!)

    Dear Rep. Lastname:

    I'm writing to urge you to reject the excessive intellectual
    property protections for database maintainers as contained in H.R.
    2652, the "Collections of Information Antipiracy Act." This bill,
    while being touted as as a piece of antipiracy legislation,
    actually makes most uses of pure information contained in a
    database illegal without prior permission from the database
    maintainer. The Act does not create useful exceptions for the fair
    use of information, and key definitions of crucial terms, such as
    "collection" and "substantial part" are missing. Furthermore the
    penalties called for - up to $500,000 and 10 years in prison - are
    excessive and injust.

    The database industry is booming and is quite lucrative for
    companies collecting and disseminating information. At present, the
    law requires database collectors to add some originality to the
    information collected before the collectors receive a legally
    recognized property right in the database. H.R. 2652 would change
    this, giving collectors property rights in raw information that has
    traditionally and properly been in the public domain. This assault
    on the public's fair use rights and freedom of speech and press
    will have dire consequences for science, medicine, journalism,
    political campaigning, and legal research. Additionally, the bill
    is simply not responsive in any way to the requirements of recent
    WIPO treaties. WIPO rejected such a "database giveaway".

    The database industry has not demonstrated a clear need for this
    legislation, and the public interest is harmed by giving these
    companies additional rights to control plain facts and information.
    H.R. 2652 represents an attempt by some information collection
    owners to fortify their markets through manipulating the legal
    system (instead of through fair competition and the addition of
    value) by raising fears of electronic piracy of information over
    the Internet and through new information technologies. Congress
    should wait until specific and definable market failures become
    apparent before acting to correct them, and even then not in a way
    as broad and vague as that attempted in H.R. 2652.

    Sincerely,
    My Name Here
    My Address Here

  (Address is especially important if you want your letter to be taken
  as a letter from an actual constituent.)

  For brief tips on writing letters to Congress, see:
  http://www.vote-smart.org/contact/contact.html The most important tip
  is to BE POLITE AND BRIEF. Swearing will NOT help.

  Note for non-US activists: You may wish to contact the House
  leadership listed above, but focus on the argument that WIPO rejected
  the approach taken by this bill because it was highly controversial.
  Perhaps suggests that passage of this bill will simply undo WIPO
  efforts to synchronize intellectual property law around the world, and
  further harm trade between the US and the EU (and other areas.) Avoid
  the argument that non-US interests, especially commercial interests,
  need access to information in American-owned databases (unless you are
  writing to describe a situation in which US interests are thwarted
  because your company or organization will be harmed by the bill, and
  you are working with US companies in some kind of joint effort). US
  legislators see the US as an intellectual property leader, in
  competition with the globe, and would probably like the idea that US
  monetary interests are boosted at the expense of foreigners.

 4. BACKGROUND

   THE LATEST NEWS

  H.R. 2652, the "Collections of Information Antipiracy Act", introduced
  by Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC), expands the rights of database creators
  and maintainers, at the expense of YOUR rights to know and use plain
  and available facts and information. The bill has been put on the fast
  track, and is up for a "suspension rules" vote, by the entire House in
  which it cannot be amendmed to fix its flaws (but can only pass with a
  2/3 majority vote.) An exception is that the principal sponsor can
  amend it at will (probably not for the better). A lot of big money is
  behind this legislation, so the danger of its passage is high.
  Concerns that it would undermine science were enough to get the vote
  postponed last week, but this argument seems to have been insufficient
  to kill the bill. Congress needs to hear from YOU, and especially
  needs to hear from US companies that would be harmed by this
  legislation.

  The bill, the latest in a long series of efforts by certain commercial
  interests to extend copyright-like protections to that which belongs
  to the public and cannot be copyrighted, authorizes enormous civil and
  criminal penalties (up to $250,000 and/or 5 years in prison for a
  first offense; $500,000 and/or 10 years in prison for subsequent
  convictions!) against anyone who uses uncopyrightable, public domain
  data collected in a database without the express consent of the
  company that controls that database.

  The Act, backed by major database maintainers such as Microsoft, Reed
  Elsevier, and West Publishing, is designed to create a new crime
  against those who extract or commercially use a "substantial part" of
  a collection of information gathered, organized or maintained by
  another person "through a substantial investment of money or other
  resources" so as to harm the data collector's "actual or potential"
  market for a product or service that incorporates that collection of
  information.

  The main problem with the bill is that key terms are either not
  defined or are poorly defined, leaving huge loopholes that render
  literally all information, data, and facts vulnerable under the Act.
  For example, even though the bill is titled the "Collections of
  Information Antipiracy Act," the term "collection" is not defined.
  "Substantial part" is not defined. The terminology is vague enough
  that just about anything could be considered a "substantial part" (cf.
  court decisions regarding digital sampling of one song for sound
  effects in another; generally if the sound bite is recognizable at all
  it is considered "substantial" and still owned by the original
  creator. It is unlikely that we can rely on the courts to narrowly
  interpret this legislation should it pass.)

  And "information" is defined as "facts, data, works of authorship, or
  any other intangible material capable of being collected and organized
  in a systematic way," an extremely broad definition that could include
  just about anything! The legislation amounts to a roundabout form of
  censorship that could severely harm journalism, medicine, scientific
  inquiry, academia, consumer watchdogging, the Freedom of Information
  Act, the democratic political process itself, and many other areas and
  avenues of inquiry about, and/or use of, raw information and facts.

  Unfortunately, while Congress has been feeling intensifying pressure
  from the database maintainers to pass this legislation, they have not
  been hearing from those opposed to the bill. YOUR immediate action is
  needed to stop it from passing the House.

    _________________________________________________________________

ADMINISTRIVIA

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