Congress re-examines copyright law

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 15, 1996 by Jenna Schnuer

The question of copyright law in the digital age was the subject of recent hearings before the House Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property. Under discussion: a change in the definition of publication to include works transmitted electronically. The proposed bill--H.R. 2441--would also impose criminal penalties on people who "intentionally disarm copyright protection systems."

While many publishers are rushing to put their content online, there is currently no copyright protection for those works under federal law. H.R. 2441 would "send a good signal that Congress wants respect for copyright in the digital environment," says Ken Kay, executive director of the Creative Incentive Coalition. The bill, and its companion bill in the Senate, is based on recommendations from the Clinton Administration's September 1995 report, "Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure."

In testimony on behalf of the Information Industry Association, The McGraw-Hill Companies' senior vice president Barbara Munder said, "[We] do not and cannot offer more [than catalog or sample selections of work on the Internet] because there is too great a risk to our valuable intellectual property in an environment where the culture and technology offer so little protection for the rights of content providers." Other witnesses included Richard Robinson, chairman, president and CEO of Scholastic, Inc., and Stephen Heaton, secretary and general counsel for CompuServe, Inc.