September 24, 1998

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is going to conference

Speak now or forever hold your peace!

On September 24, 1998, Congress held the first of several meetings today, to
reconcile the House and Senate versions of  the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA).  The DMCA makes significant changes to American copyright law in
the name of  implementing the World Intellectual Property Organization
Treaties. Unfortunately, some of the proposed changes could upset the
uniquely American balance between the users and creators of copyrighted
works.  The Senate bill lacks adequate protections for fair use, encryption
research, and personal privacy.  It could also limit the availability of
future consumer electronics and computer products.  On the other hand, the
House version contains many extraneous provisions that have little or nothing
to do with implementing the important WIPO treaties.  These provisions in the
House bill would overturn three consumer-oriented Supreme Court decisions.
The Justice department has concluded that one of these provisions, Title  V,
which creates sweeping new rights in databases and other collections of
information may well be unconstitutional. Now is the time to speak up because
these meetings will determine the final form of this legislation as it goes
to the President's desk to be signed into law.

If you care about the future of the Internet, you should let your Senators
and Representatives know, as soon as possible, how important it is to
preserve the essential provisions of the House DMCA, which protects fair use,
personal privacy, the availability of consumer products and encryption
research - while rejecting its harmful extraneous provisions.  A letter to
the Senate detailing the DFC's concerns with both pieces of legislation is
available on our web site at www.dfc.org.

E-mail (www.dfc.org), fax or call (202-224-3121) your Senators and
Representative now and ask them to contact the members of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act conference committee and urge them to keep the
protections for information consumers embodied in the core of the House
version of the DMCA and to remove provisions such as Title V, the Collections
of Information Antipiracy Act, which have no relation to WIPO implementation.

The following Representatives and Senators are on the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act conference committee:

Senator Hatch of Utah
Senator Leahy of Vermont
Senator Thurmond of South Carolina

Represenative Hyde of Illinois
Represenative Coble of North Carolina
Rpresentative Goodlate of  Virginia
Represenative Berman of California
Represenative Conyers of  Michigan
Representative Dingell of Michigan
Representative Bliley of Virginia
Representative Tauzin of Louisina

The Digital Future Coalition is 42 non-profit and for-profit entities that
are committed to fighting for balanced intellectual property law (copyright)
in the digital era.

Membership of the Digital Future Coalition

Alliance for Public Technology
American Association of Law Libraries
American Association of Legal Publishers
American Association of School Administrators
American Committee for Interoperable Systems
American Council of Learned Societies
American Historical Association
American Library Association
Art Libraries Society of North America
Association for Computers and the Humanities
Association of American Geographers
Association of Research Libraries
Chief Officers of State Library Agencies
College Art Association
Committee of Concerned Intellectual Property Educators
Computer & Communications Industry Association
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
Conference on College Composition and Communications
Consortium for School Networking
Consortium of Social Science Associations
Consumer Federation of America
Consumer Project on Technology
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Home Recording Rights Coalition
International Society for Telecommunications in Education
Medical Library Association
Modern Language Association
Music Library Association
National Association of Independent Schools
National Council of Teachers of English
National Education Association
National Humanities Alliance
National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage
National School Boards Association
National Writers Union
Society for Cinema Studies
Society of American Archivists
Special Libraries Association
United States Catholic Conference
United States Distance Learning Association
Visual Resources Association

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