Taken from B.C. Museum-L, Nov. 25, 1997
New Copyright Legislation introduced in House --
On November 13, the day before adjourning until January, Representative Dick Boucher (D-VA) and Tom Campbell (R-CA) introduced HR3048, the Digital Era Copyright Enhancement Act. This bill not only provides for the implementation of the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) Copyright Treaties adopted in General last December, but also addresses in a more comprehensive fashion issues of fair use, first sale, and distance learning.
On introducing this bill, Boucher said "This legislation provides an historic opportunity for Congress to enact a comprehensive set of reforms to modernize our copyright law in a way that will spur creativity, advance the frontiers of education, and promote technological innovation." The bill would enable educators to use computers in the same way that they currently use television to foster distance learning.
Furthermore, Campbell has noted that the legislation would also mean that librarians would "be able to use the latest technology to preserve and to share great works of literature and scientific discoveries with their patrons."
This legislation would protect the legitimate concerns of copyright owners by focusing on "infringing conduct" instead of using "circumvention devices," a strategy that is part of HR2281 and S1121, the legislation introduced earlier this year to implement the WIPO treaties.
The Boucher/Campbell legislation, HR3048, is similar in a number of ways to S1146, the Digital Copyright Clarification and Technology Education Act of 1997, which was introduced in the Senate by Senator John Ashcroft (R-MO) on September 3. BothHR 3048 and S1146 are supported by the Digital Future Coalition and by many in the library, archival, and scholarly communitites.
A complete backfile of these reports is maintained by H-Net. See World Wide Web: http://h-net.msu.edu/~ncc/
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