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Date:         Thu, 20 Aug 1992 08:21:14 EDT
From:         Susan Lewis-Somers <lewsom@casbah.acns.nwu.edu>
Subject:      AALL Gov-Line Report, No. 27

----------------------------Original message----------------------------







                          AALL GOV-LINE
                             REPORT
No. 27                                           August 8, 1992

       Produced by the AALL Government Relations Committee
            Written and Edited by Susan Lewis-Somers

     The Government Relations Committee of the American
Association of Law Libraries produces Gov-Line, a recorded
telephone hotline that reports the latest news from Washington
and the states on issues of interest to law librarians, and the
AALL Gov-Line Report, its print companion.  Issues and
institutions covered include federal information policy, Library
of Congress, the U.S. Judicial Conference, state affairs and many
other issues.  A new issue of Gov-Line and the AALL Gov-Line
Report is published every few weeks when Congress is in session.
The Government Relations Committee publishes the AALL Gov-Line
Report on several online discussion groups of interest to
librarians, including this one.  In addition, anyone may call
Gov-Line at (312) 939-7774.  For further information about any of
the issues discussed in Gov-Line or the AALL Gov-Line Report, you
may contact Bob Oakley, AALL's Washington Representative, at
(202) 662-9160 or through Bitnet at ROAKLEY@GUVAX.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

     JOINT HEARING HELD ON GPO WINDO/GATEWAY BILLS:  On July 23,
the House Administration Committee and the Senate Rules and
Administration Committee held a joint hearing to consider H.R.
2772, the GPO Wide Information Network for Data Online (WINDO)
Act of 1991, and S. 2813, the GPO Gateway to Government Act.
Both bills would establish in the Government Printing Office a
central point of free online public access, through federal
depository libraries, to a wide range of federal agency databases
that contain public information.  AALL submitted written
testimony in support of both bills, in which it applauded the
increased public access to government information the bills would
ensure, at a time when the only access to many online government
databases is from costly commercial databases.  Most of the
testimony at the hearing was supportive of the two bills; those
speaking in favor of the bills included Public Printer Robert
Houk, who heads the GPO, Representative Major Owens of New York
and Patricia Glass Schuman of the American Library Association.
Steve Metalitz of the Information Industry Association spoke in
opposition to the two bills, presumably because they would
provide free public access to many databases that have been
available only from commercial vendors.  The Senate bill would
assure even broader public access than the House bill by also
providing access to agency databases through computer networks
like the Internet and the future NREN for a fee, not to exceed
the cost of online dissemination.  It is likely that members of
the two committees that sponsored the hearing will vote in the
fall on whether to support the "marked up" versions of H.R. 2772
and S. 2813 that will result from the hearing.  Members of AALL
are encouraged to contact the members of the committees to urge
them to support the two bills.

     HEARING HELD ON LC FEES-FOR-SERVICES BILL:  On July 22, the
Senate Committee on Rules and Administration held a hearing on
S. 2748, a bill that would authorize the Library of Congress to
develop fee-based products and services for the first time.  The
Library of Congress Fund Act of 1992 would allow LC to develop
customized products and services for paying "individuals or
discrete groups."  The fees charged could not be more than the
costs for packaging and distributing such customized products and
services.  AALL explained why it could not support the bill in
its current form in written testimony to the committee.  AALL
objected to the inclusion of "electronic access to the contents
of the collections" as a form of specialized or customized
service for which it could charge fees.  This is a basic service
that AALL believes should be available to libraries and their
patrons at no charge.  AALL also expressed concern that S. 2748
would implicitly allow LC to charge users, including libraries,
ongoing licensing fees for the use of its customized products and
services.  Witnesses at the hearing who also opposed the bill
included Patricia Glass Schuman of the ALA and the
representatives of several commercial publishers who fear that LC
would compete with them in the sale of information products and
services.

     HEARING HELD ON BILL TO ALLOW COPYRIGHTS ON GOVERNMENT
SOFTWARE:  On July 28, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on
Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks held a hearing to consider
S. 1581, the Tecnology Transfer Improvements Act of 1991.  The
bill would amend the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act
of 1980 to extend copyright protection to computer software
developed by federal government agencies under cooperative
research and development agreements (CRADAs).  Under Section 105
of the Copyright Act, government entities are currently
prohibited from obtaining copyright protection for their works,
which are considered part of the public domain.  Bush
Administration officials from the Commerce Department and the
Copyright Office testified in favor of S. 1581, complaining that
foreign competitors may now copy government software in the
public domain and resell modified versions as their own.  Steve
Metalitz of the Information Industry Association warned the
subcommittee that such copyright protection would further erode
the public's access to government information.  AALL, ALA and
other library organizations are concerned about S. 1581 and its
House companion, H.R. 191, because they would restrict public
access to software needed to operate federal information
databases.  In effect, copyright protection would allow federal
agencies to charge royalties for access to government information
stored electronically, since electronic information is not
readily useable without its corresponding software.  The Senate
Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved S. 1581
in November 1991.  The House Judiciary Subcommittee on
Intellectual Property and Judicial Administration held hearings
on H.R. 191 in May 1992 and it is still pending there.


     BILLS INTRODUCED TO FURTHER IMPLEMENTATION OF NREN:  On July
1, Tennessee Senator (and now Democratic Vice-Presidential
candidate) Albert Gore introduced a bill to develop "new
applications of high-performance computing for education,
libraries, manufacturing, and health care" as part of the program
to implement the National Research and Education Network (NREN)
approved last year.  The Information Infrastructure and
Technology Act of 1992, S. 2973, would, among other things,
provide funding to the National Science Foundation and NASA to
develop the technology to create "digital libraries" that would
store text, imagery, video and sound materials in large databases
and the software to use them.  Libraries and other users on the
network would be able to "tap into more information than is
stored in the entire Library of Congress."   S. 2937 was referred
to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
California Representative George Brown introduced a companion
House bill, H.R. 5759, on August 4.  It was referred to the House
Science, Space and Technology Committee.




--
Susan Lewis-Somers			(312) 503-0287
Northwestern Law Library		(312) 503-9230 (Fax)
357 E. Chicago Ave.			lewsom@casbah.bitnet
Chicago, IL  60611			lewsom@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
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