INITED STATES. CONGRESS. HOUSE. Comm. COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON H.R. 354 62-506 MARCH 18, 1999 Serial No. 54 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 2000 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 ISBN 0-16-060788-4 Coble, Hon. Howard, a Representative in Congress from the State of North Carolina, and chairman, Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property Henderson, Lynn, President, Doane Agricultural Services Company Kirk, Michael, Executive Director, American Intellectual Property Law Asso- Lederberg, Joshua, Professor, Sackler Foundation Scholar, The Rockefeller McDermott, Terrence, Executive Vice President, the National Association of Neal, James G., Dean, University Libraries, Johns Hopkins University Peters, Marybeth, Register of Copyrights, Copyright Office of the United Phelps, Charles, Provost, University of Rochester Pincus, Andrew, General Counsel, United States Department of Commerce Winokur, Marilyn, Executive Vice President, Micromedex, Inc. LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING Duncan, Dan, Vice President, Government Affairs, Software & Information Industry Association: Prepared statement Henderson, Lynn, President, Doane Agricultural Services Company: Prepared Kirk, Michael, Executive Director, American Intellectual Property Law Asso- Lederberg, Joshua, Professor, Sackler Foundation Scholar, The Rockefeller University: Prepared statement McDermott, Terrence, Executive Vice President, the National Association of Peters, Marybeth, Register of Copyrights, Copyright Office of the United Phelps, Charles, Provost, University of Rochester: Prepared statement Pincus, Andrew, General Counsel, United States Department of Commerce: Winokur, Marilyn, Executive Vice President, Micromedex, Inc. 205 COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION ANTIPIRACY ACT THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1999 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, - The subcommittee met at 11:05 a.m. in Room 2226 of the Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Howard Coble, chairman of the subcommittee, presiding. Members present. Coble, Sensenbrenner, Goodlatte, Jenkins, Pease, Rogan, Bono, Berman, Lofgren and Delahunt. Staff present. Majority: Mitch Glazier, Chief Counsel; Vince Garlock, Counsel; Eunice Goldring, Staff Assistant; Minority: Bari Schwartz, Minority Counsel. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN COBLE Mr. COBLE. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My friend Howard Berman, the ranking member, is on his way. In fact, he has just entered the room so we can continue. Initially I want to apologize to you all. We tried to have this hearing convened in Room 2141, the home of the full Judiciary committee, but it was already taken by another subcommittee. This is why you all are elbow to elbow today. Hold me harmless for that because we did try to get a larger room. The Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property will come to order. Today the subcommittee is conducting a legislative hearing on H.R. 354, the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act, which strikes a balance as the information age arrives. The balance provides adequate protection to assure that there is an incentive of companies to invest in the development of collections of information without inhibiting members of the scientific, library and research communities from carrying on their work. This bill, as a compliment to copyright law, relies on unfair competition principles to prevent a party from misappropriating another's collection of information. In the event a person misappropriates a substantial portion of another's collection of information to the extent it will harm the original collector's ability to compete the misappropriator would be subject to injunction and damages. This bill is nearly identical to the legislation which passed the House of Representatives not once but twice last year. H.R. 354 differs from last year's legislation in two ways. First, it clarifies that the term of protection for a collection of information is limited to (1) |