Enclosures: List of Affiliates of the Department for Professional Employees, 319 Response to testimony submitted to Senate Judiciary Committee, Sub- Appendix A: List of member groups of the Coalition to Preserve the Joint statement of AGAC/The Songwriters Guild, the National Music Publishers' Association, and the Recording Industry Association of 2-"Home Taping in America: 1983-Extent and Impact," a report prepared for the Recording Industry Association of America, Inc., by Audits & Surveys, October 1983............ 5-"Copyright Liability for Audio Home Recording: Dispelling Memorandum to Members of the U.S. Congress in support of the Home Recording Act of 1983, S. 31, H.R. 1030, from the Committee on Copyright and Literary Property, May 23, 1983. CORRESPONDENCE Letter with attached statement to members of the Senate Judiciary Commit- Letters from Cary H. Sherman, Arnold & Porter, to Senator Mathias: Accompanying memorandum: Constitutionality of Proposal for Nego- December 13, 1983. Enclosure: Letter from Solomon Dutka, chief executive officer, Audits Page 492 498 500 501 523 524 VIDEO AND AUDIO HOME TAPING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1983 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:15 a.m., in room 226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Senator Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (chairman of the subcommittee), presiding. Also present: Senator DeConcini. Staff present: Ralph Oman, chief counsel, Tom Olson, counsel, Charlie Borden, professional staff member, and Pam Batstone, chief clerk, Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks; Renn Patch, counsel to Senator Hatch; Annette Hutton, staff of Senator Metzenbaum; Beverly McKittrick, counsel to Senator Laxalt; Doug Comer, counsel to Senator Dole; Jack Lyon, counsel to Senator Simpson. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, JR. Senator MATHIAS. The committee will come to order. We meet today to consider again the home taping copyright issue. As we all know, this matter is also being considered across the street at the Supreme Court where the Betamax case has recently been reargued. There would, I suspect, be a general agreement within the Congress that regardless of the final decision of the Court, we would not want to hinder anyone's ability to tape off the air in the privacy of their own home for noncommercial purposes, for personal use. We have two bills pending in the subcommittee: One is Senate bill 175, introduced by Senator DeConcini, which would create an exemption from the copyright, from the restraints of the copyright laws in favor of home video taping. The second bill, Senate bill 31,. I introduced, which establishes the same exemption for both video and for audio home taping, and at the same time creates a small royalty obligation on the manufacturers of the recording equipment and the blank tapes, which would be distributed as compensation to the creators of the copyrighted works. The amount of the royalty would be determined in negotiations between the manufacturers and the copyright holders. I should mention in passing that since all video tape recorders marketed in the United States are manufactured in Japan or by Japanese industry, I think it was a favorable sign when an executive of Matsushita Corp. stated during the past summer that Matsushita would try as much as possible to (1) absorb any royalty fee that might be imposed rather than passing it on to purchasers. I am sure that the merits and drawbacks of these two proposals will be discussed at some length in the testimony this morning so that, after an opportunity for Senator DeConcini to comment, we will turn immediately to the witnesses. [S. 175, introduced by Senator DeConcini, and S. 31, introduced by Senator Mathias, follow:] |