Political Quotes

“I am glad to be working with Senator Hatch as original cosponsors of this, the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1997. We worked together on this matter last Congress to craft a bill that was reported by the Judiciary Committee to the Senate by a vote of 15 to 3. I raised a number of questions and concerns during our Judiciary Committee hearing on this issue back in September 1995. I spoke of a letter I had received from Prof. Karen Burke Lefevre of Vermont and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She expressed reservations, as a researcher and author, that Congress not extend the term for unpublished works beyond the term set by the 1976 Act. This category of materials is set to have its copyrights expire in 2002. They include anonymous works and unpublished works of interest to scholars. In section 2(c) of the bill we introduce today, we accommodate these interests and preserve the public availability of these materials in 2003, if they remain unpublished on December 31, 2002. I want to thank Marybeth Peters, our Register of Copyrights, for supporting this improvement in the bill, and Senator Hatch for working with me on it. I am concerned about libraries, educational institutions and nonprofits being able to access materials and provide access in turn for research, archival, preservation and other purposes.”