IIA
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 2652
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MAY 20, 1998
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
AN ACT
To amend title 17, United States Code, to prevent the
misappropriation of collections of information.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Collections of Informa-
tion Antipiracy Act’’.
SEC. 2. MISAPPROPRIATION OF COLLECTIONS OF INFOR-
MATION.
Title 17, United States Code, is amended by adding
at the end the following new chapter:
‘‘CHAPTER 12—MISAPPROPRIATION OF
COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION
‘‘Sec.
‘‘1201. Definitions.
‘‘1202. Prohibition against misappropriation.
‘‘1203. Permitted acts.
‘‘1204. Exclusions.
‘‘1205. Relationship to other laws.
‘‘1206. Civil remedies.
‘‘1207. Criminal offenses and penalties.
‘‘1208. Limitations on actions.
‘‘§ 1201. Definitions
‘‘As used in this chapter:
‘‘(1) COLLECTION OF INFORMATION.—The term
‘collection of information’ means information that
has been collected and has been organized for the
purpose of bringing discrete items of information to-
gether in one place or through one source so that
users may access them.
‘‘(2) INFORMATION.—The term ‘information’
means facts, data, works of authorship, or any other
intangible material capable of being collected and or-
ganized in a systematic way.
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‘‘(3) POTENTIAL MARKET.—The term ‘potential
market’ means any market that a person claiming
protection under section 1202 has current and de-
monstrable plans to exploit or that is commonly ex-
ploited by persons offering similar products or serv-
ices incorporating collections of information.
‘‘(4) COMMERCE.—The term ‘commerce’ means
all commerce which may be lawfully regulated by the
Congress.
‘‘(5) PRODUCT
OR
SERVICE.—A product or
service incorporating a collection of information does
not include a product or service incorporating a col-
lection of information gathered, organized, or main-
tained to address, route, forward, transmit, or store
digital online communications or provide or receive
access to connections for digital online communica-
tions.
‘‘§ 1202. Prohibition against misappropriation
‘‘Any person who extracts, or uses in commerce, all
or a substantial part, measured either quantitatively or
qualitatively, of a collection of information gathered, orga-
nized, or maintained by another person through the invest-
ment of substantial monetary or other resources, so as to
cause harm to the actual or potential market of that other
person, or a successor in interest of that other person, for
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a product or service that incorporates that collection of
information and is offered or intended to be offered for
sale or otherwise in commerce by that other person, or
a successor in interest of that person, shall be liable to
that person or successor in interest for the remedies set
forth in section 1206.
‘‘§ 1203. Permitted acts
‘‘(a) INDIVIDUAL
ITEMS
OF
INFORMATION
AND
OTHER INSUBSTANTIAL PARTS.—Nothing in this chapter
shall prevent the extraction or use of an individual item
of information, or other insubstantial part of a collection
of information, in itself. An individual item of information,
including a work of authorship, shall not itself be consid-
ered a substantial part of a collection of information under
section 1202. Nothing in this subsection shall permit the
repeated or systematic extraction or use of individual
items or insubstantial parts of a collection of information
so as to circumvent the prohibition contained in section
1202.
‘‘(b) GATHERING
OR USE
OF INFORMATION OB-
TAINED THROUGH OTHER MEANS.—Nothing in this
chapter shall restrict any person from independently gath-
ering information or using information obtained by means
other than extracting it from a collection of information
gathered, organized, or maintained by another person
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through the investment of substantial monetary or other
resources.
‘‘(c) USE OF INFORMATION FOR VERIFICATION.—
Nothing in this chapter shall restrict any person from ex-
tracting information, or from using information within
any entity or organization, for the sole purpose of verifying
the accuracy of information independently gathered, orga-
nized, or maintained by that person. Under no cir-
cumstances shall the information so extracted or used be
made available to others in a manner that harms the ac-
tual or potential market for the collection of information
from which it is extracted or used.
‘‘(d) NONPROFIT EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC, OR RE-
SEARCH USES.—Nothing in this chapter shall restrict any
person from extracting or using information for nonprofit
educational, scientific, or research purposes in a manner
that does not harm the actual or potential market for the
product or service referred to in section 1202.
‘‘(e) NEWS REPORTING.—Nothing in this chapter
shall restrict any person from extracting or using informa-
tion for the sole purpose of news reporting, including news
gathering, dissemination, and comment, unless the infor-
mation so extracted or used is time sensitive, has been
gathered by a news reporting entity for distribution to a
particular market, and has not yet been distributed to that
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market, and the extraction or use is part of a consistent
pattern engaged in for the purpose of direct competition
in that market.
‘‘(f) TRANSFER OF COPY.—Nothing in this chapter
shall restrict the owner of a particular lawfully made copy
of all or part of a collection of information from selling
or otherwise disposing of the possession of that copy.
‘‘§ 1204. Exclusions
‘‘(a) GOVERNMENT
COLLECTIONS
OF
INFORMA-
TION.—
‘‘(1) EXCLUSION.—Protection under this chap-
ter shall not extend to collections of information
gathered, organized, or maintained by or for a gov-
ernment entity, whether Federal, State, or local, in-
cluding any employee or agent of such entity, or any
person exclusively licensed by such entity, within the
scope of the employment, agency, or license. Nothing
in this subsection shall preclude protection under
this chapter for information gathered, organized, or
maintained by such an agent or licensee that is not
within the scope of such agency or license, or by a
Federal or State educational institution in the
course of engaging in education or scholarship.
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‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—The exclusion under para-
graph (1) does not apply to any information re-
quired to be collected and disseminated—
‘‘(A) under the Securities Exchange Act of
1934 by a national securities exchange, a reg-
istered securities association, or a registered se-
curities information processor, subject to sec-
tion 1205(g) of this title; or
‘‘(B) under the Commodity Exchange Act
by a contract market, subject to section
1205(g) of this title.
‘‘(b) COMPUTER PROGRAMS.—
‘‘(1) PROTECTION NOT EXTENDED.—Subject to
paragraph (2), protection under this chapter shall
not extend to computer programs, including, but not
limited to, any computer program used in the manu-
facture, production, operation, or maintenance of a
collection of information, or any element of a com-
puter program necessary to its operation.
‘‘(2) INCORPORATED COLLECTIONS OF INFOR-
MATION.—A collection of information that is other-
wise subject to protection under this chapter is not
disqualified from such protection solely because it is
incorporated into a computer program.
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‘‘§ 1205. Relationship to other laws
‘‘(a) OTHER RIGHTS NOT AFFECTED.—Subject to
subsection (b), nothing in this chapter shall affect rights,
limitations, or remedies concerning copyright, or any other
rights or obligations relating to information, including
laws with respect to patent, trademark, design rights,
antitrust, trade secrets, privacy, access to public docu-
ments, and the law of contract.
‘‘(b) PREEMPTION OF STATE LAW.—On or after the
effective date of this chapter, all rights that are equivalent
to the rights specified in section 1202 with respect to the
subject matter of this chapter shall be governed exclusively
by Federal law, and no person is entitled to any equivalent
right in such subject matter under the common law or
statutes of any State. State laws with respect to trade-
mark, design rights, antitrust, trade secrets, privacy, ac-
cess to public documents, and the law of contract shall
not be deemed to provide equivalent rights for purposes
of this subsection.
‘‘(c) RELATIONSHIP
TO
COPYRIGHT.—Protection
under this chapter is independent of, and does not affect
or enlarge the scope, duration, ownership, or subsistence
of, any copyright protection or limitation, including, but
not limited to, fair use, in any work of authorship that
is contained in or consists in whole or part of a collection
of information. This chapter does not provide any greater
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protection to a work of authorship contained in a collec-
tion of information, other than a work that is itself a col-
lection of information, than is available to that work under
any other chapter of this title.
‘‘(d) ANTITRUST.—Nothing in this chapter shall limit
in any way the constraints on the manner in which prod-
ucts and services may be provided to the public that are
imposed by Federal and State antitrust laws, including
those regarding single suppliers of products and services.
‘‘(e) LICENSING.—Nothing in this chapter shall re-
strict the rights of parties freely to enter into licenses or
any other contracts with respect to the use of collections
of information.
‘‘(f) COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1934.—Nothing in
this chapter shall affect the operation of the provisions
of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et
seq.), or shall restrict any person from extracting or using
subscriber list information, as such term is defined in sec-
tion 222(f)(3) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 222(f)(3)), for the purpose of publishing telephone
directories in any format.
‘‘(g) SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT
OF 1934 AND
COMMODITY EXCHANGE ACT.—Nothing in this chapter
shall affect—
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‘‘(1) the operation of the provisions of the Secu-
rities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 58a et seq.)
or the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 1 et
seq.);
‘‘(2) the public nature of information with re-
spect to quotations for and transactions in securities
that is collected, processed, distributed, or published
pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Ex-
change Act of 1934;
‘‘(3) the obligations of national securities ex-
changes, registered securities associations, or reg-
istered information processors under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934; or
‘‘(4) the jurisdiction or authority of the Securi-
ties and Exchange Commission or the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission.
‘‘§ 1206. Civil remedies
‘‘(a) CIVIL ACTIONS.—Any person who is injured by
a violation of section 1202 may bring a civil action for
such a violation in an appropriate United States district
court without regard to the amount in controversy, except
that any action against a State governmental entity may
be brought in any court that has jurisdiction over claims
against such entity.
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‘‘(b) TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT INJUNCTIONS.—
Any court having jurisdiction of a civil action under this
section shall have the power to grant temporary and per-
manent injunctions, according to the principles of equity
and upon such terms as the court may deem reasonable,
to prevent a violation of section 1202. Any such injunction
may be served anywhere in the United States on the per-
son enjoined, and may be enforced by proceedings in con-
tempt or otherwise by any United States district court
having jurisdiction over that person.
‘‘(c) IMPOUNDMENT.—At any time while an action
under this section is pending, the court may order the im-
pounding, on such terms as it deems reasonable, of all cop-
ies of contents of a collection of information extracted or
used in violation of section 1202, and of all masters, tapes,
disks, diskettes, or other articles by means of which such
copies may be reproduced. The court may, as part of a
final judgment or decree finding a violation of section
1202, order the remedial modification or destruction of
all copies of contents of a collection of information ex-
tracted or used in violation of section 1202, and of all
masters, tapes, disks, diskettes, or other articles by means
of which such copies may be reproduced.
‘‘(d) MONETARY RELIEF.—When a violation of sec-
tion 1202 has been established in any civil action arising