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ACM Letter on Copyright
``` [I have enclosed a letter that the ACM has sent to relevant members of Congress concerning problems with proposed legislation on intellectual property issues, preceded by ACM's press release on the letter.]
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 1995 14:09:36 -0500
From: Marc Rotenberg
[...]
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PRESS RELEASE
December 1, 1995
US Public Policy Office of the Association for Computing (ACM)
Contact: Barbara Simons at (408) 463-5661 USACM web page http://www.acm.org/usacm/
ACM CALLS FOR REVIEW OF COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION
RECOMMENDS MODEL POLICY FOR CONSIDERATION
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Association for Computing (ACM), an international membership organization of information and computer professionals, today expressed concern about a proposal to extend copyright restrictions to the Internet. In a letter to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, the ACM urged Congressional leaders to pursue further public debate before adopting legislation that "fails to recognize legitimate needs and interests of academic, professional, scientific, and ordinary users of telecommunications technology."
The letter is a response to S. 1284 and H.R. 2441, the Information Infrastructure Copyright Act of 1995. The Act is based on a White Paper prepared by a government working group on intellectual property rights chaired by Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Bruce A. Lehman. This White Paper recommends that Congress restructure the current copyright law.
The ACM letter warns that certain provisions in the bill "would impede legitimate needs of the scientific and academic communities to disseminate and study information in a free and speedy fashion." ACM cautions that as written, the bill "expands the legal interpretation of 'copyright infringement,' by making it unlawful to browse through digital libraries found on-line, whether those libraries are located on the Internet or elsewhere."
The ACM warns that the inclusion of the word "transmission" in a particular section of the bill "may be interpreted by the courts to cover a transmission to a video screen for period of time long enough for such material to be read." The letter concludes that as written, the Information Infrastructure Copyright Act may criminalize browsing, a widespread activity on the Internet today.
ACM submitted a model copyright policy, developed specifically for the dissemination of electronic information. The ACM policy encourages browsing while deterring copying for profit or commercial advantage.
Stu Zweben, President of ACM stated that the "ACM has developed an effective policy to deal with copyright in the electronic age. This policy reflects the technical expertise, publishing expertise, and the basic interests of the scientific and educational communities that ACM serves. Policy makers should be cognizant of our work, and account for these interests before enacting legislation on this issue."
Zweben said, "It is important that ACM exercise its leadership in information technology by speaking out on this issue."
Barbara Simons, Chair of the U.S. Public Policy Committee of ACM said, "Our nation is facing the question of how to integrate the new electronic technology into our society and our legal system. Protection of intellectual property is clearly of great importance. However, we need to exercise caution when considering new laws and restrictions. ACM looks forward to working with Congress to explore appropriate technical and legislative methods for protecting intellectual property."
The ACM is an educational and scientific organization otherwise known as the Association for Computing. The membership of the ACM includes more than 85,000 information and computing professionals worldwide, including almost 70,000 persons who reside in the United States.
A copy of the ACM Letter on the Information Infrastructure Copyright Act may be found at http://www.acm.org/usacm/copyright_letter.txt. For further information about the ACM public policy activities, contact the USACM at 666 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Suite 301, Washington, DC 20003, telephone (202) 298-0842 or contact Barbara Simons at (408) 463-5661. The full text of the Lehman White Paper, the Information Infrastructure Copyright Act, and other material concerning intellectual property including the ACM Model Policy is available at the USACM web page (http://www.acm.org/usacm/).
[Here is the letter itself]
Mr. Chairman:
By way of introduction, we are writing to you on behalf of the ACM, an educational and scientific organization otherwise known as the the Association for Computing. The membership of the ACM includes more than 85,000 information and computing professionals worldwide, including almost 70,000 persons who reside in the United States. As an organization, we are very pleased with your demonstrated interest in promoting the benefits of information technology. We are, however, concerned with a bill which is pending before your committee: the "Information Infrastructure Copyright Act," S. 1284.
From our perspective the current language of this bill fails to recognize legitimate needs and interests of academic, professional, scientific, and ordinary users of telecommunications technology. Copyright laws that make the most sense for some forms of publication, such as commercial music, may make poor sense for scientific and scholarly works. Commercial entertainment firms have a legitimate interest in maximizing their profits. Other kinds of publishing and distribution organizations in the scientific and scholarly worlds balance cost recovery/profit with maximizing the review and distribution of materials to the academic and research community. The ACM has developed a sound policy that seems promising for its members; other scholarly publishers and libraries are developing alternative policies. Virtually all of these models differ from some key restrictions of S. 1284 that are certain to inhibit scientific and scholarly communication.
As a specific example of the problem, we note that the bill proposes to add the phrase "transmission" in the definitions of two words, "distribution" and "publication," now used in the copyright law to delineate rights in written works. Further, the definition of the word "transmission" itself would include distribution by any means whereby a copy is fixed long enough to be perceived. Such a definition, without further clarification, may be interpreted by the courts to cover a transmission to a video screen for period of time long enough for such material to be read. Thus, the bill would broadly expand the legal interpretation of "copyright infringement," by making it unlawful to browse through digital libraries found on-line, whether those libraries are located on the Internet or elsewhere. Implementation of such a definition would impede legitimate needs of scientific and academic communities to disseminate and study information in a free and speedy fashion. These interests were inadequately addressed in the Administration's recently completed "White Paper."
As an integral part of its activities, the ACM is a publisher of numerous journals, some of which are now being moved on-line. For this reason, it has given abundant consideration to the proper application of the copyright principle in the on-line environment. As part of its newly enacted Copyright Policy, the ACM has chosen to adopt a working definition that recognizes how the technology of browsers works: the browser brings a portion of the copyrighted work to the local computer where it is being viewed. We have structured our copyright policy, applied to our works, to allow and encourage browsing. We need to permit individuals to browse and search through digital libraries for the purpose of professional research, as well as educational use. Illustrative of this definition is the copyright notice which will accompany all digitally published material maintained by the ACM:
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted with or without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and full citation on the first page . . . . To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on services, or to redistribute to lists, requires specific permission and/or a fee.
It is this type of freedom of access over digital networks which is indispensable to maintain motivated and effective academic and research communities.
Action is certainly needed in the digital copyright area. However, a rush to legislate without an adequate consensus on the balance among different interests made poses a danger to all of society.
We urge you, now, to take steps to study S. 1284 in the larger context of all the goals which information technology must serve. A careful and methodical study of these issues, complete with suitable hearings where all interests of society can be heard, is the appropriate manner in which to proceed. A mistake today may well hobble scientific and economic advances in our country for decades to come. In an effort to assist your committee during these hearings, the ACM would be pleased to provide the names of distinguished individuals who are knowledgeable about the technical aspects of electronic publishing and who would be prepared to offer expert testimony at such hearings.
Sincerely,
Stu Zweben, President, ACM Barbara Simons, Chair, U.S. Public Policy Committee of ACM ```
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