dedication to public domain/Copyright Reform Act

I'd like to suggest a connection between two threads of discussion on this list. Part of Bob Oakley's motivation as I understand it, in wanting to divest himself of copyright in his occasional remarks in this forum is that he really doesn't want people to feel at all constrained in reposting these remarks and using them for other purposes--subject only to properly identifying their source. Now, in a practical sense, Section 412 of the Copyright Act--because it requires registration as a condition for award of statutory damages and attorney's fees-has the effect of allowing people like Bob to distinguish between what they really feel it is important to protect (by registering it) and what they don't want to be bothered protecting. Users run little risk of incurring any great liability by reproducing copyrighted material that has not been registered where there could not be any strong basis for proving "actual damage" from such use--as, certainly, would be the case with reposting of informal remarks on the Internet. Passage of the Copyright Reform Act, be repealing Section 412, would prevent people like Bob from enjoying the benefits of this useful differentiating device. Everything, no matter how informal and incidental and trivial, would be entitled to award of statutory damages and attorney's fees if reproduced without authorization (assuming "fair use" could not be claimed). This, it seems to me, is yet another reason for opposing passage of this pernicious piece of legislation (as, incidentally, both Bob and I did in testifying before the Senate subcommittee hearing on October 19--he for the American Association of Law Libraries and I for the AAP and AAUP).

Sandy Thatcher, Director, Penn State Press Received on Tue Mar 01 1994 - 17:09:59 GMT