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18 Legal Information Alert 1 (1999)

handle is hein.lbr/leinfal0018 and id is 1 raw text is: ,A nUs M3I What's new in legal publications, databases, and research techniques Volume 18, No. 1 January 1999 Contents Copyright and the 105* Congress: A Review of Its Legislation 1 For Your Information 6 New Sources 8 Publishers 15 Index 15 Copyright and the 105th Congress: A Review of Its Legislation by Samuel E. Trosow The 105th Congress was a contentious session on the copyright front. A strong bipartisan coalition, backed by the Clinton Administration and the content indus- try, was poised to carry out the maximalist agenda that failed to pass in the 104th Congress. Once again, however, this agenda was diligently opposed by a broad coalition of librarians, educators, researchers, and others concerned about pre- serving a reasonable level of open access to information resources in an electronic era. These efforts met with mixed results, and this report briefly highlights the most notable among these. No Electronic Theft Act The first major copyright legislation to pass during the session was the No Electronic Theft Act. Previously, the Copyright Act contained criminal penalties for willful copyright infringement only in cases involving commercial advan- tage or private financial gain. In a 1994 case involving the distribution of copyrighted software over a student-operated bulletin board, a court dismissed a criminal prosecution because the defendant never benefited financially from the transactions. This triggered a strong reaction that was the impetus for the new legislation. Eliminating the requirement of direct financial gain, the Act extends the reach of criminal sanctions to include the reproduction or distribution of copyrighted works based upon the total retail value of the work ($1,000 for misdemeanors, $2,500 for felonies). The act also extends the statute of limitations from three to five years, and expressly calls for victim impact statements during sentencing. In its enthusiasm to close the perceived LaMacchia loophole, Congress has indeed cast a broad dragnet. While the Act is susceptible to a number of challenges, especially if prosecu- tors attempt to apply it broadly to persons in the nonprofit sector, the measure will likely succeed in creating a chilling effect against the full exercise of one's rights to copy and distribute protected works. It also seems designed to shift certain costs of enforcement from the private parties who financially benefit from copyright protection to the public at large. continued on next page -I am ow it M I

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