Copyright news from ALA (and a request for help)

Crossposting ... apologies for duplication.

>1. Libraries Join EFF on Brief in Digital
>Copyright Case that Puts Linking at Risk
>
>
>
>On July 20, the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA)
>joined with the Electronic Frontier Foundation
>(EFF) in filing an amici curiae ("friends of the
>court") brief [link to brief] in the U.S. Court
>of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a case
>concerning critical digital copyright issues.
>The LCA
><http://www.librarycopyrightalliance.org>www.librarycopyrightalliance.org
>
>is a coalition of library groups consisting of
>the American Association of Law Libraries, the
>American Library Association, the Association of
>Research Libraries, the Medical Library
>Association and the Special Libraries
>Association.
>
>
>
>The suit against the Internet search company
>Google by the adult entertainment publisher
>Perfect 10 claims that Google's Image Search
>service violates copyright law by indexing
>Perfect 10 photos posted on unauthorized
>websites, then making and delivering thumbnail
>images of those photos in its search results.
>Perfect 10 also contends that Google should be
>held liable for any copyright infringement that
>occurs on sites that Google links to.
>
>
>
>The case is on appeal from a lower court ruling
>issued in February 2006 that ordered Google to
>remove links to certain websites containing
>Perfect 10 photographs pending the outcome of
>the case. Experts, however, widely viewed the
>ruling as a victory for Google, as the court
>rejected many of Perfect 10 arguments.
>
>
>
>EFF's Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred
>von Lohmann, who wrote the amici brief,
>explained: "Perfect 10 wants to hold Google
>responsible for the misdeeds of the websites it
>links to. No search engine could survive if
>that were the rule, nor, for that matter, could
>most bloggers or other web publishers. If
>Perfect 10 succeeds in convincing the court that
>in-line linking and framing of images
>constitutes a public display or distribution of
>copyrighted work, then millions of web
>publishers and bloggers will suddenly be on the
>wrong side of copyright law -- as well as the
>millions of web users who may follow a link to a
>website with infringing content."
>
>
>
>More information and analysis of the case, as
>well as briefs that have been filed, can be
>found on EFF's site at
><http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/Perfect10_v_Google>http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/Perfect10_v_Google.
>The appellate court is not likely to issue a
>decision for several months.
>
>
>
>2. Support Sought for Open Access Legislation:
>Federal Research Public Access Act, S. 2695
>
>
>
>Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Joseph
>Lieberman (D-CT) introduced the "Federal
>Research Public Access Act of 2006" in May. The
>bill, S. 2695, requires federal agencies that
>fund over $100 million in annual external
>research to make electronic manuscripts of
>peer-reviewed journal articles stemming from
>their research publicly available via the
>Internet within six months of publication.
>
>
>
>Increased access to federally funded research
>accelerates the pace of discovery and innovation
>and fosters economic growth. It is critical
>that this new research be readily available to
>physicians, researchers, and members of the
>public. The public includes those who are not
>affiliated with or who are working in locations
>remote from libraries that subscribe to
>increasingly expensive journals and databases
>developed from federally funded research.
>
>
>
>At its Annual Conference in June 2006, the
>American Library Association's Council passed
>a <http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/openaccesstoresearch/ALAResolutionFRPAA.pdf>Resolution in
>support of FRPAA. As the resolution notes, the
>federal government invests $55 billion annually
>in scientific research, with the National
>Institutes of Health (NIH) portion accounting
>for one-third of that, resulting in over 65,000
>journal articles published annually. During
>tight budgetary times, this legislation will
>help ensure all government departments and
>agencies that invest significant sums in
>research will achieve a greater return on their
>and the taxpayers' investment.
>
>
>
>For details of the bill, go
>to <http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa/>http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa/,
>the web site for the Alliance for Taxpayer
>Access, a coalition to which ALA belongs and
>which supports reforms that will make publicly
>funded research accessible to the public.
>
>
>
>Contrary to some claims, S. 2695 is not a threat
>to journals and the peer review process. The
>Federal Research Public Access Act contains two
>key provisions that protect journals and the
>peer review process:
>
>· A delay of up to six months in
>providing access to articles via the public
>archive (versus immediate access for journal
>readers).
>
>· Inclusion in the public archive of the
>author's final manuscript rather than the
>publisher's formatted, paginated version
>preferred for citation purposes.
>
>
>
>A related bill whose aim is to speed access to
>biomedical research is S. 2104, the "American
>Center for Cures Act of 2005." Introduced in
>December 2005 by Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
>and Thad Cochran (R-MS) to establish the
>American Center for Cures within the National
>Institutes of Health (NIH), the bill includes a
>provision that would help to make
>taxpayer-funded biomedical research available to
>all potential users.
>
>
>
>Please go to ALA's Legislative Action Center
><http://www.onlineadvocacy.net/>http://www.onlineadvocacy.net/
>to send a message to your Senator, asking him or
>her to co-sponsor these bills. After you log in
>to the site, you will click first on "Federal
>Issues" and then "All Federal Issues."
>
>
>
>+++++++++++++
>Miriam M. Nisbet
>Legislative Counsel
>American Library Association
>1615 New Hampshire Ave. NW
>Washington, DC 20009-2520
><mailto:mnisbet[_at_]alawash.org>mnisbet[_at_]alawash.org
>Phone: 202-628-8410, x. 8202 or
>1-800-941-8478, x. 8202
>Fax: 202-628-8419
>

-- 
____________________________________________________
M. Claire Stewart
Head, Digital Media Services, Marjorie I. Mitchell Multimedia Center
Coordinator of Digitization Projects, Northwestern University Library
(847) 467-1437
claire-stewart[_at_]northwestern.edu
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/cstewart/
http://copyrightreadings.blogspot.com