
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 8, 1994                   TAG: 9407110186
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GOVERNMENT TAKES EARLY AIM AT SUPERHIGHWAY ROBBERY

WASHINGTON - Making electronic copies of documents on the information superhighway and distributing them could one day be illegal, the Clinton administration said Thursday as it considered how to apply copyright laws to the future world of electronic or digital communications.

Bruce Lehman, the U.S. commissioner of patents and trademarks and a key architect of a report on how to refine the laws, said the preliminary finding simply would extend traditional copyright law to the day when people may do all their personal and professional business electronically.

A person who makes 100 printed copies of a magazine and gives them out to friends would be in violation of existing copyright law, Lehman noted. The administration wants the same protection to apply to electronic information flowing over advanced telecommunication networks, he said.

Lehman said he doesn't think a person making one or two electronic copies of a magazine and giving it to friends would be in legal trouble under the proposal.

But the report doesn't make that distinction. It recommends that ``the Copyright Act be amended to reflect the fact that copies of works can be distributed to the public by transmission and that such transmissions fall within the exclusive distribution right of the copyright owner.''

What the report leaves open is how, as a practical matter, copyright protections on the electronic highway would be enforced. Lehman said it would be up to copyright owners - from newspaper and software publishers to movie producers - to go after violators and file civil suits in court.

That's what happens now under the bulk of existing copyright-infringement cases, Lehman said. ``Ninety-nine point nine-nine percent of the cases are civil,'' and the federal government is not involved.

Other recommendations:

nMaking it illegal to import, manufacture and distribute devices designed to circumvent anti-copying technologies.

nHolding a conference this summer to develop guidelines for public libraries and schools to use copyrighted materials available from on-line services.

nHaving schools and libraries educate people about copyright laws when obtaining materials electronically.

The administration plans to issue final recommendations to Congress by the end of the year.

by CNB