Press Release for the Senate Judiciary Committe Hearings

 

May 13, 1996
Contact: Ephraim Cohen
Digital Future Coalition
(202) 628-6048

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

###PRESS CONFERENCE ALERT###

Imminent Congressional Action on Flawed Copyright Package Threatens Future of Consumer Electronics, Education and the Internet

Please Join Representatives of Many High-Tech Industries, Consumers, Retailers,  Teachers, and Librarians for the Briefing on the "NII Copyright Protection Act of 1995"

National Press Club, Main Lounge
Tuesday, June 11
9:30 TO 10:30 AM
(Refreshments Served)

The House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property will meet in the next few days to cast the first critical Congressional vote on the Administration's ANII Copyright Protection Act of 1995" (H.R. 2441).

Members of the Digital Future Coalition (a group of 27 national high-technology companies, education, library, consumer, and privacy organizations) with a seven-point plan to rebalance this heavily copyright owner-weighted legislation will be available Tuesday, June 11 at 9:30 to detail the dramatic negative consequences of premature action on H.R. 2441 and to discuss its equally dangerous international implications.

At this writing, presenters will include representatives of:

Consumer Federation of America
National Education Association
American Committee for Interoperable Systems
Home Recording Rights Coalition
Five National Library Associations

Join us to discuss this seriously flawed legislation! If passed in its current form, H.R. 2441 would:

• make it a crime to manufacture the next generation of VCRs, personal computers and other digital devices needed for recreational and educational use by adding a sweeping and overbroad new Section 1201 to the Copyright Act;
• make simply browsing the Internet a violation of the law without a license from copyright owners;
• prevent teachers from using computers to their full potential in "distance education" efforts that bring electronic classrooms to kids, especially in rural communities and for the disabled; and
• subject computer system operators --including on-line services and networks at schools and libraries --to potentially crippling liability for the copyright violations of their users.