Declan McCullagh, Weaker database bill gets House committee vote, CNET News.com, March 3, 2004. McCullagh reports that the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a "limited version of a database bill," introduced on March 2. The committee reviewed H.R. 3872, "To prohibit the misappropriation of databases while ensuring consumer access to factual information," a.k.a. Consumer Access to Information Act of 2004. It appears to be a modified version of the bill approved by the House Judiciary Committee, namely the Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act (H.R. 3261), very likely in repsonse to opposition expressed by the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Google and other tech companies. The text of H.R. 3872 is about one-third the size of its counterpart, stating that the legislation prohibits other parties using ("free-riding on") another person's efforts and expenditures compiling a database and using the "information in direct competition with a product or service offered by the first person," and lacks the extensive sections on permissions and liabilities characteristic of the DCIMA. The fate of either piece of legislation now rests with the House Rules Committee, according to McCullagh. (Source: beSpacific).
Posted by
Garrett at 3/04/2004 10:46:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
