Information Industry--United States--Legislation Database Bill Passes Congressional Committee
The legislation discussed in the article is often referred to as the "Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act." From the article, "A congressional panel on Wednesday approved a proposal to curb database copying, ignoring the objections of technology companies that launched a last-minute lobbying campaign to kill the proposal. By a 16-7 vote, the House Judiciary committee approved an intellectual property bill that had been opposed by Amazon.com, AT&T, Comcast, Google, Yahoo and some Internet service provider associations. The proposal, backed by big database companies such as Reed Elsevier and Thomson, would extend to databases the same kind of protection that copyrighted works such as music, literature and movies currently enjoy. Its supporters say that such protection is necessary to stop rivals from extracting information from proprietary databases like Reed Elsevier's LexisNexis service instead of going through the far more expensive process of compiling it themselves. Wednesday's vote follows a 10-3 vote last October in a subcommittee...Now the measure likely will go to the House floor in preparation for a possible vote." See Also: Full Text of House Judiciary Announcement See Also: Database-protection bill advances in Congress (via Reuters)
From the article, "The controversial measure must also clear the Energy and Commerce Committee before it can come up for a vote on the House floor, where its fate is uncertain. No similar bill has yet been introduced in the Senate...Lawmakers drafted a more narrowly focused version last year, and the committee narrowed it further to exempt universities and Internet providers from liability. 'What we have here is a watered-down, compromise version,' said North Carolina Republican Rep. Howard Coble, a bill sponsor."
-- See Also: Opposition to the Discussion Draft, "Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act" (9/03)
A letter signed by AALL, ALA, ARL, and SLA. See Also: Much More Background in Two ResourceShelf Posts from October, 2003
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