Proposal to regulate public right to use database information

[Marian Hank]

As a non-librarian, I normally lurk on this fantastic list.  However, when
I was alerted to the World Intellectual Property Organization proposal
concerning the ownership of facts that are currently considered to be in
the public domain I felt that this was a topic that would be of interest
to this list.

Information on the proposal can be found at:

http://www.public-domain.org/database/database.html

Quoting from the homepage:

  "This is a very important and troubling proposal that is before the U.S.
   Congress and the World Intellectual Property
   Organizaiton (WIPO)."

  "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is accepting public comments
   on the pending WIPO treaties on Internet copyright and database
   extraction rights. Comments are due by November 22,
   1996, and can be submitted by electronic mail
   to: diploconf at uspto.gov. Here is the full text of Federal Register
   notice, on the request for Comments on the Chairman's Text
   of the Diplomatic Conference on Certain Copyright and Neighboring
   Rights Questions, To Be Held in Geneva From December 2 to 20, 1996." 

The site provides links to many resources for further information.
Included is a link to a paper by James Love:

  "The treaty seeks, for the first time, to permit firms to "own" facts
   they gather, and to restrict and control the redissemination of
   those facts. The new property right would lie outside (and on top) of
   the copyright laws, and create an entirely new and
   untested form of regulation that would radically change the public's
   current rights to use and disseminate facts and statistics.
   American University Law Professor Peter Jaszi recently said the treaty
   represents "the end of the public domain." " 

Mr. Love's paper, Government Proposes New Regulation of Sports Statistics
and other "facts"," may be accessed directly at
http://www.essential.org/cpt/ip/wipo-sports.html

 
I am very interested in hearing the opinions of librarians on this 
proposal and also feel compelled to post because the deadline for
submitting public comments is so close.

Sincerely,

-Marian Hank

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              Marian Hank 
Imaginary Landscape,LLC, Handwoven Websites
marian at imagescape.com * justhank at mcs.net
        http://www.imagescape.com

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