[IP] Tech firms fail to squelch database bill
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 22:46:24 -0600
Subject:
From: John Lyon <jelyon@xxxxxxx>
To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.553)
Perhaps of interest to IP.
Tech firms fail to squelch database bill
By
Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
http://news.com.com/2100-1028-5145040.html
Story last modified January 21, 2004, 5:25 PM PST
A congressional panel on Wednesday approved a proposal to curb database
copying, ignoring the objections of technology companies that launched a
last-minute lobbying campaign to kill the proposal.
By a 16-7 vote, the House Judiciary committee approved an intellectual
property bill that had been opposed by Amazon.com, AT&T, Comcast, Google,
Yahoo and some Internet service provider associations.
The proposal, backed by big database companies such as Reed Elsevier and
Thomson, would extend to databases the same kind of protection that
copyrighted works such as music, literature and movies currently enjoy. Its
supporters say that such protection is necessary to stop rivals from
extracting information from proprietary databases like Reed Elsevier's
LexisNexis service instead of going through the far more expensive process
of compiling it themselves.
The loosely organized technology coalition opposed to the proposal had
stepped up its lobbying efforts in the days leading up to the committee
vote, joined by library and civil liberties groups.
"Proponents of the bill have yet to offer a convincing case that existing
federal and state laws, including federal copyright law, federal
antihacking prohibitions, and a variety of state contract and tort laws,
are insufficient to provide database producers with adequate protection,"
the coalition said in a letter last week. "They have certainly failed to
demonstrate a problem that would justify the fundamental and
constitutionally suspect changes to our nation's information policy called
for in the legislation."
One of the most vocal opponents of the bill has been the venerable U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, which argued that database owners already have the
ability to protect their property through contracts and terms-of-service
agreements. In its own letter to Congress, the Chamber predicted that a
financial analyst with access to Dun & Bradstreet databases could violate
the law by including that information in a report prepared for a client, as
could a research chemist who wishes to reproduce information on the
effectiveness of new pharmaceuticals.
The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act of 2003
does not include criminal penalties. Rather, it allows the database owner
to sue in civil court "any person who makes available in commerce to others
a quantitatively substantial part of the information in a database." There
are limited exemptions for educational and research organizations and for
journalists.
The bill, backed by Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., also is controversial
because, critics say, it would sidestep a U.S. Supreme Court decision that
said facts could not be copyrighted.
Wednesday's vote follows a 10-3 vote last October in a subcommittee. Now
the measure likely will go to the House floor in preparation for a possible
vote.
John Lyon
_________________________
http://www.surlyedition.com
We filter the news, so you don't have to!
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/