Electronic collections, and other collections of factual material, are absolutely indispensable to the American economy on the verge of the new century.

It is time to consider new federal legislation to protect developers who place their materials in interstate commerce against piracy and unfair competition.

But several recent legal and technological developments threaten to cast a pall over this progress, by eroding the incentives for the continued investment needed to maintain and build upon the U.S. lead in world markets for electronic…

Mr. Speaker, today I am proud to introduce the 'Collections of Information Antipiracy Act,' a bill to encourage continued investment in the production and distribution of valuable new collections of information.

These information products put a wealth of data at the fingertips of business people, professionals, scientists, scholars, and consumers, and enable them to retrieve from this haystack of information the specific factual needle that they…