[Libs-Or] Fwd: [ALA-WO:316] Congressional Activity on "Orphan Works, " Open Access

[Diedre Conkling]

A busy FYI kind of day   

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Subject: [ALA-WO:316] Congressional Activity on "Orphan Works," Open Access
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:43:49 -0400
From: "ALAWASH E-MAIL" <ALAWASH at alawash.org>
To: ALA Washington Office Newsline <ala-wo at ala.org>

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American Library Association
Washington Office Newsline

ALAWON
Volume 15, Number 099
September 27, 2006




________________________________

Congressional Activity on "Orphan Works," Open Access

________________________________


"Orphan Works"

The "Orphan Works Act of 2006," H.R. 5439, was introduced in May, as a
result of efforts by libraries, publishers, the U.S. Copyright Office,
and other groups to amend the copyright law to deal with works whose
owners are difficult or even impossible to find. The thrust of the bill
is that remedies for infringement of a copyrighted work will be limited
if the user (the alleged infringer) had made a reasonably diligent, good
faith search to locate the owner of the work but was unable to find the
owner. 


The bill was marked up by the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee
on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property subcommittee in May
and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. Even though libraries
have concerns with some aspects of the bill, we supported it because we
believed that, if enacted, H.R. 5439 would substantially alleviate the
orphan works problem, particularly for libraries. 

In a disappointing move in late summer, the orphan works bill was
combined with two other bills dealing with online music licensing and
"enhanced" criminal copyright enforcement to form the larger and more
complicated "Copyright Modernization Act of 2006," H.R. 6052. Withdrawn
three times from scheduled markup by the House Judiciary Committee (most
recently on September 27), the bill will not move forward in the current
congressional session. There is no companion Senate bill. Libraries will
work on the reintroduction of an orphan works bill in the new Congress
next year. 

More information and background about orphan works is available on the 
ALA copyright pages
<http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/orphanworks/orphanwo
rks.htm> . 

Open Access to Research 

On September 26, legislation to provide for a sweeping overhaul of the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) - the first of its kind in 13 years
- included key report language underscoring Congressional oversight to
actively monitor participation rates and overall effectiveness of the
NIH's Public Access Policy. The NIH Reauthorization Bill, authored by
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, passed the
House of Representatives on Tuesday, September 26. 

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access <http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/>  (ATA)
- of which ALA is a member - reports that the importance of the public
access policy was brought into focus as well at last week's markup of
the bill, when Congressman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania echoed concerns
about the meager participation rate - less than five percent - under
NIH's current voluntary policy. Committee Chairman Joe Barton responded
during markup, telling Doyle he shares many of his concerns regarding
the function of the public access policy and pledging to work with the
Congressman to implement reform measures. 

More information and background about open access issues is available on
the ALA copyright pages
<http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/openaccesstoresearch
/accessresearch.htm> .


________________________________


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<http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=News&template=/ContentManagemen
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ALAWON Editor:
Andy Bridges 


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