cr> Intellectual Property Legislation, Internet Taxes, Net Censorship

[Cyber Rights <cyber-rights@cpsr.org>]

(Introduction from moderator: The Association for Computing Machinery
is the leading professional organization in the computer field. Over
the past decade they've greatly increased their involvement in social
and policy questions.--Andy)

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ACM WASHINGTON UPDATE
U.S. Office of Public Policy of the
Association for Computing Machinery
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April 3, 1998  Volume 2.3
POLICY BRIEFS
        Intellectual Property Legislation
        President Speaks on Internet Taxes
        Senate Committee Approves Two Net Censorship Bills
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POLICY BRIEFS
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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LEGISLATION

On March 31, 1998, the House Judiciary Committee marked up H.R. 2281,
the "WIPO Copyright Treaties Implementation Act."  Introduced by
Representative Henry Hyde (R-IL), H.R. 2281 makes the use, manufacture
or sale of any technology that can be used to circumvent copyright
protections illegal. Rather than providing protection and legal
against the act of unlawful circumvention itself, H.R. 2881 focuses
instead on the technologies used to enable the circumvention. The Act
which is backed by the Clinton Administration has the stated purpose
of enacting the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
copyright treaties passed in Geneva in December of 1996.  However, the
Act would actually go much farther than the treaties require,
disrupting the balance between owners, creators and users of
copyrighted information.  The anti-circumvention provisions of
H.R. 2281 would give content owners the unprecedented power to bar
consumers (including value-added innovators) from making copies of
material that is being distributed commercially to the public,
effectively gutting the fair use doctrine of copyright law.

USACM criticized this approach which was ultimately rejected in the
WIPO treaties.  USACM wrote, "This could adversely effect a company
which legitimately develops a product that people use for different
purposes than that for which it was developed. Since it is likely to
be extremely difficult for a developer to collect data about the
primary use of the product, it may be impossible to refute a claim
made by copyright holders who argues that the primary effect of a
particular device is copyright infringement. As a result, the Article
could have the undesired effect of dissuading manufacturers or
software producers from investing in a new technology with substantial
non-infringing purposes for fear that an anxious copyright holder
might pursue litigation using the "primary effect" standard. USACM
concluded, "We believe that the Article should address the intent of
the individual or company, not the effect of its actions or product.

Furthermore, this bill would impede encryption research that helps
ensure secure networks, prevent legitimate reverse engineering in the
development of new software, and effectively overrule the Supreme
Court's decision in Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464
U.S.  417 (1984), which permitted the home taping of television
broadcasts.

A much better WIPO implementation bill, which punishes the "act" of
unlawful infringement and maintains fair use protections, is
H.R. 3048, the "Digital Era Copyright Enhancement Act."  H.R. 3048
would encourage the development of new technologies and markets for
copyrighted works in digital form, while giving intellectual property
holders the strong tools they need to go after infringing conduct.

H.R. 2281: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281:
H.R. 3048: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.3048:
USACM letter:
http://www.acm.org/usacm/copyright/wipo_copyright_letter.html

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PRESIDENT SPEAKS ON INTERNET TAXES

On March 19, 1998, The President released a brief statement rescinding
his call for a short-term moratorium on new and discriminatory taxes
that would "slow down the growth of the Internet, and a search for
long-term solutions to the tax issues raised by electronic commerce."
Instead he stated,  "We cannot allow 30,000 state and local tax
jurisdictions to stifle the Internet, but neither can we allow the
erosion of the revenue that state and local governments need to fight
crime and invest in education."

The President continued by praising the agreement reached by groups
representing state and local elected officials as "an important and
constructive step towards a long-term solution."

http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/urires/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1998/3/19/
10.text.1

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SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES TWO NET CENSORSHIP BILLS

The Senate Commerce Committee approved two bills on March 12 designed to
limit access to material on the Internet. S. 1619, introduced by Senator
John McCain (R-AZ), requires that schools and libraries must "select a
system for computers with Internet access to filter or block matter
deemed to be  inappropriate for minors" before they can receive money
under the E-Rate Universal Service fund to provide net access from the
Federal Communications Commission. The Committee also discussed
amendments introduced by Senator Burns and Breaux that would limit the
scope of the bill. The amendments will be considered before the
legislation is sent to the Senate floor.

The other bill, S. 1482, introduced by Senator Dan Coates (R-IN),
criminalizes the distribution of commercial material that is "harmful to
minors." The penalty is a $50,000 fine and six months jail time. In
additional, the bill also says that violators " shall be subject to a
civil fine of not more than $50,000 for each violation. For purposes of
this paragraph, each day of violation shall constitute a separate
violation."

In the House, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced H.R. 3442, E-Rate
Policy and child Protection Act of 1998 on March 11. The bill would
only require that "an elementary or secondary school or library that
obtains services or preferential rates or treatment under this section
shall establish a policy with respect to access to material that is
inappropriate for children."

More information is available on the bills from the Internet Free
Expression Alliance at: http://www.ifea.net
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