Position on U.S. Proposal on Database Intellectual Property

Dear Commisioner Lehman:

We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to express our concern over the “Draft Treaty in Respect to Databases” to be discussed at the diplomatic conference in Geneva this December on behalf of the World Intellectual Property Organization (the “Treaty”). The proposed Treaty grants a new sui generis property right, which does not incorporate a public “fair use” doctrine, or other traditional copyright conventions.

If enacted as proposed, the Treaty will do violence to the long-established practice in the academic and scientific communities of sharing information for educational and research purposes and will commercialize certain information that is and has always been freely available.

Section 1.03 of the proposed Treaty claims that current technology allows databases to be reproduced at “practically no cost.” This is not true. An online database is a complex system with much underlying structure that the user never sees. Accessing or copying large portions of the database at minimal or no cost is simply not feasible. But, the proposed Treaty would make the use of databases by the public or scientific and research communities even more prohibitive by permitting database owners or vendors to arbitrarily determine what portion of a database can be extracted, used, or reused.

Section 1.04 of the proposed Treaty argues that the originality requirement of U.S. Copyright law does not provide sufficient protection for database producers. This statement is curious in light of a long U.S. legal tradition protecting free speech and authorship on the grounds that facts cannot be copyrighted or otherwise removed from the public domain. By creating a new property right for facts, the Treaty will impose regulations on the use of facts—an idea that flies in the face of American history and values. The twin dangers are that we will now have to pay to buy collections of “facts” in the public domain, which we did not have to pay for before and that monopolies will be sanctioned and created by the Treaty. In other words, the Treaty strikes down “fair use” and extends sui generis protections to public and private collections.

Section 1.04 becomes increasingly incomprehensible in light of the Section 10.05 proposal that “Contracting Parties may design the exact field of application of the provisions envisaged in this Article taking into consideration the need to avoid legislation that would impede lawful practices and the lawful use of subject matter that is in the public domain.” In order to implement the spirit of Section 10.05, Section 1.04 and its progeny must be discarded.

Consider the numerous categories of public information for which only one practical and/or cost effective information source exists. The practical result of the Treaty will be to create commercial monopolies on these public information sources. Examples include telephone directory information, weather data, “official” sports statistics, government data administered under private contracts (such as the Official Airline Guide data) and other similar public information.

It is shocking that the United States Government is seriously considering supporting a proposal that will operate to maximize profits to a small number of database vendors at the expense of the public at large without first undertaking a careful domestic review of these concerns. We urge you to examine this issue through Congressional hearings and other meaningful public discussion.

Sincerely,
Marcy J. Gordon, Esq.
66 Pearl Street #307
New York, NY 10004-2443660
(212)514-9514
mgordon@pipeline.com

On behalf of the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility

Endorsers

Joe McCord, Ph.D.
MCCORD@CL4.CL.UH.EDU
President, Texas Library Association
2700 Bay Area Blvd
Houston, TX 77058
713 283 3931
Fax 713 283 3907

Coralee Whitcomb
CWHITCOM@bentley.edu
Virtually Wired Educational Foundation

Analisa L. Balares
albalare@mtholyoke.edu
Co-Chair, The Economics Society
Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, Massachusetts

First Amendment Project
fap@well.com
CAL-FOI@rosebud.berkeley.edu
1736 Franklin Street, 8th Flr.
Oakland, CA 94162

Richard Stallman
rms@nuclecu.unam.mx
The Free Software Foundation

Gordon Cook
cook@cookreport.com
The COOK Report on Internet
431 Greenway Ave
Ewing, NJ 08618
609 882-2572 (phone & fax)
http://pobox.com/cook/

William Drake
drakew@gusun.georgetown.edu
Associate Director Communication, Culture and Technology Program
Georgetown University
Washington, D.C.
202 687-1722
http://www.georgetown.edu/grad/CCT
http://epn.org/tcf/tcdrak01.html

Mike Godwin
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Scott Brower
datura@haus.net
effloida@haus.net
info@efflorida.org
Founder/Executive Director
Electronic Frontiers Florida
http://www.efflorida.org

David Smith
bladex@bga.com
eff-austin@io.com
President, EFF-Austin
PO Box 18957
Austin TX 78760
512-304-6308
http://www.eff-austin.org

Alan Sugarman, President
HyperLaw

Jamie Love
Consumer Project on Technology

Todd Lappin, Section Editor
WIRED magazine

Eleanor J. Lewis
Executive Director
American Association of Legal Publishers

Jane Gottlieb
gottlieb@panix.com
President
Music Library Association
212/799-5000 ext. 265
fax: 212/724-0263

Dr. Pamela Czapla
pjc2@psu.edu
Director
Library Program
The National Cable Television Center
The Pennsylvania State University
Level B, Sparks Bldg.
University Park, PA 16802
814 865 1875
fax: 814 863 7808

Douglas Aerie
AERIE.DOUGLAS_A@BUFFALO.VA.GOV
Buffalo AIDSNET

Prevention Point of Buffalo, Inc

ACT UP Western New York

AIDS Alliance

Aids Community Services

Buffalo Columbus Hospital, Project REACH

Geneva B Scruggs Community Healthcare Center

Upstate NY VA Healthcare System

Committee on AIDS and Policy Issues
716 862 3338

James E. Leinweber
jiml@slh.wisc.edu
Information Systems
State Laboratory of Hygiene
University of Wisconsin
465 Henry Mall
Madison WI 53706-1578
608 262 0736

Robert Nickerson
rob@cwnet.com
Agent, Communications World Network (http://www.cwnet.com/)
Director, Bevcom Internet Technologies (http://www.bevcom.org)
Enthusiast, The Lycaeum (http://www.lycaeum.org)
U442

Oliver Clarke
info@community.org.uk
Chairman of CommUnit
The Pig Pen
http://www.pigpen.demon.co.uk/
Support Community, The Computer Communicators Association World Wide Web
http://www.community.org.uk/

Ron Ipsen
Managing Director
Gippsland Internet Pty Ltd
051 276543
Fax: 051 262020
http://www.comu.net.au
Gippslands Community Network
http://www.gips.com.au

Richard Hull
richard.hull@umist.ac.uk
CROMTEC (Centre for Research on Organisations, Management & Technical Change)
Manchester School of Management
U.M.I.S.T.
PO Box 88
Manchester M60 1QD
UK
+44 (0)161 200 3401
Fax: +44 (0)161 200 3622

Dr Michael Baker
mbaker@pobox.com
Board Member, Electronic Frontiers Australia
PO Box 5
Flaxley SA
5153 Australia
Ph:08 8388 8439
Fax:08 8262 3633 08=+618
http://pobox.com/~mbaker

Director
Center for Information, Technology & Society Melrose, MA

Paul Healey
healey@dcn.davis.ca.us
Davis Community Network

Director
Educational Products Information Exchange Educational Products
Information Exchange
Hampton Bays, NY

Dr. Edgar Cahn
Director
Time Dollar Institute
Washington, DC

Paul Foldes
President
Inter-Serve
Alexandria, VA

John German
President
Non-Profit Computing
New York, NY

Kenneth Komoski, Director
Dr. Edgar Cahn, Co-founder
Dr. W. Curtiss Priest, Associate Director
LINCT (Learning and Information Networks for Community Telecomputing)
Hampton Bays, NY
Center for Information, Technology, & Society
466 Pleasant Street
Melrose, MA 02176-4522
BMSLIB@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
617-662-4044
Fax: 617-662-6882
http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/CITS
Policy & Sys. Div., Educational Products Information Exchange (EPIE)

Steve Peterson
stevep@ry.com
Randy Boyer
randyb@ry.com
Reality Interactive, Inc.
612 996 6717
http://www.realtools.com

Prof. Dr. Arie Dirkzwager
aried@xs4all.nl
Board Member DB-NL
Digital Citizens Foundation Netherlands
http://www.db.nl

David Levinger
levity@rpi.edu

Harry Hochheiser
harry@tigger.jvnc.net

Patricia Gould, M.L.S.
pgould@arc.net

Beth Brunk
BRUNK@utarlg.uta.edu
President, Gorgias Rhetoric Society at UT Arlington

Prof. B. Chandrasekaran
chandra@cis.ohio-state.edu
Dept of Computer & Information Science
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43201
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~chandra

Mikki Barry
ooblick@access.digex.net
Attorney Internet Policy Consultants

Laurel Jamtgaard
lgaard@aol.com
Third Year Law Student
Boalt Hall School of Law
Berkeley California

Brad Neuberg
bkn3@columbia.edu

Alkesh M. Desai
desai@capital.net
New York, NY

Willie Schatz
willie@his.com
President
The Schatz Group

Pat Noziska
pat_noziska@gatekeeper.atlas.com

Paul Czyzewski
paulc@best.com

Dan Sheridan
dms@world.std.com
Box 841
Winchester, MA 01890

Joan Packard
jpackard@lakenet.org
745 Cortland Rd.
Groton, NY 13073

Thor Lancelot Simon
tls@panix.com

Brennon M. Martin
brennon@u.washington.edu
School of Communications
University of Washington
UWired Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology
ctlt@u.washington.edu
Box 353080
Seattle, WA 98195-3080
206.616.8154
fax 206.685.8485
http://www.washington.edu/uwired/ctlt.html

Tam Beeler
mtstream@nbn.com
Mountain Stream
304 Aberdeen Way
Inverness, CA 94937
415 669-7546

William K. Walker
wkwalker@digisys.net
71066.24@compuserve.com
P.O. Box 1941
North Valley Digital
Kalispell, MT 59903-1941
406 257-2306
406 752-3201 (fax)
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/wkwalker/

Damon Gallaty
djg@JYC.COM
Computer Engineer
Johnson Yokogawa Corporation

Chris Mays
cmays@thecity.sfsu.edu
MLIS Student School of Library and Information Science
SLIS
Box 76
SJSU
Keeper of the CEGI List
Winner: James Madison Freedom of Information Award, 1996

Robert L. Sapp, Sr.
rlssr@shore.intercom.net
Box D-14
River Village Millsboro, Delaware 19966

Richard Shaner
copytech@memes.com
PO Box 294
Bellingham, Wa 98227-0294

Geri R. Bunker
bunker@u.washington.edu

Stan Ruttenberg
sruttenberg@ngdc.noaa.gov
ICSU panel on World Data Centers

Jim Ray
jmr@shopmiami.com
DNRC Minister of Encryption Advocacy

Theresa Amato
Executive Director
Citizen Advocacy Center
P.O. Box 420
Elmhurst, IL 60126

Paul Hyland
hylandp@aol.com
Internet Consultant
Alexandria, VA

John Levine
johnl@iecc.com
Trumansburg, NY
Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies"

Marilyn Davis, Ph.D.
madavis@deliberate.com
3790 El Camino Real, #147
Palo Alto, CA 94306
415 493-3631

Michael Gersten
michael@stb.info.com
1255 McNell Road
Ojai, Ca, 93023
http://www.stb.info.com/~michael
http://www.stb.info.com/~michael/work/

Rick Crawford
crawford@cs.ucdavis.edu
Computer Security Researcher
UC Davis

Bill Stager
US citizen currently resident in France
wjstager@club-internet.fr
wjstager@dnaco.net
BillStager@aol.com

Prof. Shelly Warwick
wasbb@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Baruch College

Leonard Chung
leonard@pacbell.net

Kate Jensen
cmdtrgd@tcd.net
53N 200W
Cedar City, UT 84720
801 865-5963

Dave Sifry
david@sifry.com
sifry@aptltd.com
Sifry Consulting
408 471-0667
408 471-0666 (fax)

Glenn B. Manishin
gbm@clark.net
info@technologylaw.com
gman55@aol.com
Washington, DC
202.955.6300
Fax 202.955.6460
Firm: http://www.technologylaw.com/
Personal: http://www.clark.net/pub/gbm
F1: http://www.clark.net/pub/gbm/F1/f1intro.html

Robert Costner
pooh@efga.org
Executive Director
Electronic Frontiers Georgia
770 512-8746
http://www.efga.org/

K. Claffy National Laboratory for Applied Network Research PI
619 534 8333

Bill Lambert [Dr. W. M. Lambert, Jr.]
wlambert@cariari.ucr.ac.cr
wlambert@emate.ucr.ac.cr
Apdo 111-2070
Sabanilla Montes de Oca
COSTA RICA
Tel. (506) 224-6136

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