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-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Wendy Clark Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 4:13 PM To: Syscon-Tx (E-mail) Subject: FW: [ALA-WO:837] ALRT COPY: Public Domain Enhancement Act Introduced in House (ALAWON v 12, no 58) FYI -----Original Message----- From: ALAWASH E-MAIL [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 2:27 PM To: ALA Washington Office Newsline Subject: [ALA-WO:837] ALRT COPY: Public Domain Enhancement Act Introduced in House (ALAWON v 12, no 58) ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 12, Number 58 June 27, 2003 In This Issue: Public Domain Enhancement Act Introduced in House On June 25, 2003 Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced the Public Domain Enhancement Act (HR 2601), a bill to make it easier for older and endangered copyrighted works to fall into the public domain. Representative Doolittle (R-CA) co-sponsored the bill, which is intended to reform lengthy terms of copyright protection. The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 added another 20 years of protection to what had previously been a 50-year term of protection for copyrighted works. HR 2601 creates a simple mechanism by which copyright owners who wish to avail themselves of the additional 20 years of protection would be required simply to pay a $1 fee 50 years after the work was published and every 10 years thereafter. Thus, materials - currently those published between 1923 and 1942 - that would have gone into the public domain but for the 1998 law and that copyright holders do not intend to exploit commercially during the additional 20 years of protection would enter the public domain. This process would not be an undue burden for the copyright holders (who today must pay a fee when they register with the U.S. Copyright Office) and would realize significant and important public benefits. Under provisions of this act, the U.S. Copyright Office would establish a user-friendly, efficient electronic filing procedure to process forms to extend the term of protection; collect the minimal $1 maintenance fees; and make the forms broadly available to the public so that there is one centralized directory of titles that remain under the additional twenty years of protection. Today it is onerous and costly for libraries to track down copyright holders of older materials. It is estimated that after 50 years from the time of publication, 98% of copyrighted materials are no longer providing any economic benefit to the copyright holders. The latter provision is especially crucial to libraries, archives and the public as it would provide a single database that could be easily searched to determine whether or not a particular work remains under copyright protection or is in the public domain. At the June 25 press conference to introduce the bill, Representative Lofgren acknowledged the support of the library community. Miriam Nisbet, ALA Legislative Counsel, speaking on behalf of ALA, the American Association of Law Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries, emphasized that this bill would enable libraries to preserve many materials that would otherwise be lost. Professor Larry Lessig of Stanford Law School, who worked with Representative Lofgren on drafting the legislation, presented her with a Petition to Claim the Public Domain with 15,000 names of bill supporters. Please contact your representatives and urge them to co-sponsor HR 2601, the Public Domain Enhancement Act. For further information, go to www.ala.org/copyright and click on copyright news. To sign the petition, go to http://eldred.cc, a website that serves as the focal point for information about the campaign to pass this bill. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Camille Bowman, Mary Costabile, Don Essex, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell, Claudette Tennant. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy. --------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Include in body: unsubscribe ctls-l For information on CTLS-L please visit: http://www.ctls.net/document/ctls-l.htm
