Promoting Electrotechnology Careers and Public Policy

May 18, 1998

The Honorable Henry Hyde
Chair, Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Rep. Hyde:

On behalf of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - United States of America (IEEE-USA), and its 220,000 U.S. electrical, electronics and computer engineers we wish to express our concern that the Information Antipiracy Act (H.R. 2652) has come to the House floor under suspension and will come to the floor again on Tuesday, May 19, 1998. As you know, when a bill comes to the floor under suspension the bill is usually a non-controversial issue. H.R. 2652 is still very controversial. The science and engineering community has had concerns from the day the bill was introduced and has expressed them during the past year. Many of those concerns still have not been addressed. We urge you to take this bill off suspension. This bill needs more discussion and debate. IEEE-USA does not believe that this bill is ready for passage without more discussion or debate at least on the House floor.

We understand that the bill's intent was to restore intellectual property rights that may have been lost under in the Supreme Court's decision in Feist v. Rural Electric--which overruled "sweat of the brow" protection for non creative collections of information. However, we believe that H.R. 2652 goes far beyond reviving the "sweat of the brow" approach to prevent duplication for distribution and imposes criminal penalties. We also believe that this bill would have a harmful effect upon our members--who are innovators of technology and researchers who use databases in their operations. This bill will frighten innovators from using current technical databases. The Collections of Information Antipiracy Act would have the effect of stifling the ability to seek knowledge, innovation, and essential research--all factors that are essential to the advancement and competitiveness of the United States.

IEEE-USA has recommended a number of changes to the bill including a limit of three years on the term of the protection as well as substituting the prohibition of "use" and "extraction" with the prohibition of "unauthorized selling and distribution of data." We believe that both these changes would go a long way toward alleviating some of our members' concerns. To this point, we do not believe that these changes have been properly addressed.

Specifically, IEEE-USA is concerned that the 15 year term of protection, in this bill, will renew perpetually. While we are strong supporters of intellectual property harmonization and understand that the international community may adopt a 15 year term of protection for databases, we are troubled by the fact that H.R. 2652 will provide protection every time a database is enhanced. IEEE-USA does not believe this is sound intellectual property or economic policy. This does not encourage innovation or U.S. competitiveness.

Our second substantive concern focuses on the prohibition of "use" and "extraction" of data. Although the current bill states that the prohibition is limited to use and extraction in commerce, we believe that this could stifle database users from using data strictly for research reasons. In a March 16, 1998 letter, we have recommended that the words "use" and "extraction be replaced with a "prohibition of unauthorized selling or distribution." IEEE-USA believes this was the original intent of the legislation. As the world's largest publisher of technical data IEEE wants to ensure that its intellectual property is strongly protected—but not at the expense of stifling innovation, technology and research.

We once again urge you to request that H.R. 2652 be pulled from suspension so that the bill can be properly debated.

We would be happy to discuss these matters with you in further detail if the opportunity should avail itself.

Sincerely,

John R. Reinert, DM
IEEE-USA President

Daniel E. Fisher, P.E., Esq
Chair, IEEE-USA Intellectual Property Committee

Note: The same letter was sent to all members of the House Judiciary and Science Committees.

Attachment

IEEE-USA Recommendations for the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act (H.R. 2652) (Download and print as Win97/Word 7 doc or PDF file)

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Last Update: June 15, 1998

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