Cross Posting: Public Domain Enhancement Act

["Neal Pomea" <npomea@xxxxxxxx>]

This is cross posted from the ALAWASH listserv
ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 12, Number 58
June 27, 2003

In This Issue: Public Domain Enhancement Act Introduced in House On
June 25, 2003

Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced the Public Domain
Enhancement Act (HR 2601), a bill to make it easier for older and
endangered copyrighted works to fall into the public domain. 
Representative Doolittle (R-CA) co-sponsored the bill, which is intended
to reform lengthy terms of copyright protection.   The Copyright Term
Extension Act of 1998 added another 20 years of protection to what had
previously been a 50-year term of protection for copyrighted works.  

HR 2601 creates a simple mechanism by which copyright owners who wish
to avail themselves of the additional 20 years of protection would be
required simply to pay a $1 fee 50 years after the work was published
and every 10 years thereafter.  Thus, materials - currently those
published between 1923 and 1942 - that would have gone into the public
domain but for the 1998 law and that copyright holders do not intend to
exploit commercially during the additional 20 years of protection would
enter the public domain.  This process would not be an undue burden for
the copyright holders (who today must pay a fee when they register with
the U.S. Copyright Office) and would realize significant and important
public benefits. 

Under provisions of this act, the U.S. Copyright Office would establish
a user-friendly, efficient electronic filing procedure to process forms
to extend the term of protection; collect the minimal $1 maintenance
fees; and make the forms broadly available to the public so that there
is one centralized directory of titles that remain under the additional
twenty years of protection.  Today it is onerous and costly for
libraries to track down copyright holders of older materials. 

It is estimated that after 50 years from the time of publication, 98%
of copyrighted materials are no longer providing any economic benefit to
the copyright holders.  The latter provision is especially crucial to
libraries, archives and the public as it would provide a single database
that could be easily searched to determine whether or not a particular
work remains under copyright protection or is in the public domain. 

At the June 25 press conference to introduce the bill, Representative
Lofgren acknowledged the support of the library community.  Miriam
Nisbet, ALA Legislative Counsel, speaking on behalf of ALA, the American
Association of Law Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries,
emphasized that this bill would enable libraries to preserve many
materials that would otherwise be lost.  Professor Larry Lessig of
Stanford Law School, who worked with Representative Lofgren on drafting
the legislation, presented her with a Petition to Claim the Public
Domain with 15,000 names of bill supporters. 

Please contact your representatives and urge them to co-sponsor HR
2601, the Public Domain Enhancement Act. For further information, go to
www.ala.org/copyright and click on copyright news.  To sign the
petition, go to http://eldred.cc, a website that serves as the focal
point for information about the campaign to pass this bill.

-- 
Neal Pomea
Information and Library Services
University of Maryland University College
3501 University Blvd. East
Adelphi, MD 20783

Phone: 301-985-7579 or 1-800-283-6832, ext. 7209
Fax:   301-985-7870
npomea@xxxxxxxx

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