House Backs Web Copyright Protection

The House on Tuesday approved legislation designed to protect books, music, software and other creative works from Internet pirates who illegally copy and distribute the products.

Entertainment companies such as Time Warner Inc., software developers such as Microsoft Corp. and book publishers would benefit from the legislation as the popularity of electronic commerce takes off and online pirates proliferate. The bill would also limit the liability of telephone companies, such as Bell Atlantic Corp., and online service providers, such as America Online Inc., when a customer illegally transmits or posts copyrighted works on a network.

The Senate approved similar legislation in May. The Senate and House measures will need to be reconciled in a conference committee before final passage and then sent to President Clinton for his signature.

Both the House and Senate bills mark a compromise involving the telephone industry, online service providers and the Hollywood creative community. The competing interests had been haggling for more than a year over when, and under what circumstances, a company would be liable for copyright infringement.

“Both sides need each other,” said said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who led industry negotiations on the issue. If the creative community doesn’t believe its works are protected online, it won’t put them on the Internet, stunting the global medium’s growth. On the other hand, if phone companies and online service providers think they’ll be subject to litigation at every turn, they’ll “lack incentive to provide quick access to the Internet,” he said.

Another sticking point that stalled the measure for several weeks was the issue of whether the existing “fair use” principle--which allows schools, libraries and others to make a limited number of copies of copyrighted works--would apply to the digital era. After lengthy discussions, the Hollywood community and representatives of schools and libraries struck a compromise.

The bill would implement 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization treaties extending copyright laws to materials online as well as other changes in copyright law. Other countries have been waiting for the U.S. to act on the WIPO treaty before taking steps to implement the agreement.