In this issue...

1. Senate Appropriations Committee Orders EPA to Restore Library Access
2. Intellectual Property Bill Would Increase IP Penalties
3. LCA Signs on to Brief Supporting Cablevision
4. EPA Web Link to FAQ's
5. EPA Meets with SLA Conference Attendees
6. Joint Paper on the WIPO Development Agenda
7. Google Budges on Search Server Logs
8. Support Restoring Funding for the NHPRC
9. Google's New Project with the CIC
10. Ninth Circuit Rules on Perfect 10 vs. Google
11. An Animated Look at Copyright and Fair Use

Senate Appropriations Committee Orders EPA to Restore Library Access
After much ongoing debate from SLA and others in the library community over the closing of several EPA Libraries (read full background), the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008 IT/Data Management/Security- The Committee recommends $99,426,000, including a $2,824,000 increase above the request, for IT/Data Management/Security activities. Of that increase, $824,000 shall be used to fund fixed costs and $2,000,000 shall be used to restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the administration. While the Committee approves of efforts to make environmental data collections available electronically, the Committee does not agree to further library closures or consolidations without evidence of how the public would be served by these changes. Therefore, the Committee expects the EPA to restore publicly available library facilities in each region. EPA is directed to submit a plan on how it will use this funding increase to reopen facilities and maintain a robust collection of environmental data and resources in each region by December 31, 2007." Read full Appropriations Act S.1696.

Intellectual Property Bill Would Increase IP Penalties
The Justice Department is trying to get even tougher on copyright violators. U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is urging Congress to enact a new intellectual property bill. The Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007 would increase criminal penalties for copyright infringement, including "attempts" to commit piracy where no actual copyright infringement occurs. Also the Justice Department is saying it has already started increasing convictions, lengthened prison sentences, increasing restitution, and is ensuring all illegal gains are forfeited, as well as any property used to commit the crimes. Read Article.

LCA Signs on to Brief Supporting Cablevision
The Library Copyright Alliance, of which SLA is a member, signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Cablevision. Twentieth Century Fox v. Cablevision concerns the question of who makes the copy when an entity provides facilities that can be used by third parties. Cablevision rolled out a "remote DVR service." Instead of renting a TiVo-like DVR box from Cablevision that would reside in the user's home, the user would be able to "rent" a certain amount of space on Cablevision's central server. The user could then direct the server to make a copy of a particular TV program, and the user would be able to view the copy whenever he or she wished. Read Brief. Read Appeal.

EPA Web Link to FAQ's
The Environmental Protection Agency has put its 2007 National Framework for the Headquarters and Regional Libraries Plan and answers to 19 of the most frequently asked questions about their libraries and repositories section on its Web site. EPA Link.

Bill Would Increase EPA's Budget
The House Appropriations Committee has approved a bill that would give the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  $7.6 billion for interior-environment spending. The bill increases the EPA's 2008 budget to $8.1 billion, a $361 million increase over current spending. This could be great news for EPA's libraries and laboratories, which were subject to downsizing attempts in anticipation of significant 2007 budget cuts. The budget restoration may permit the EPA to ditch its plans for closings and consolidations. Read Article.

EPA Meets with SLA Conference Attendees
SLA conference attendees got to meet, ask questions, and voice their concerns about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) closings. Michael Flynn, deputy director of the Office of Information Analysis and Access at the EPA presented at the meeting. Read Blog. Read SLA 2007 Blog.

Joint Paper on the WIPO Development Agenda
A joint paper from the Library Copyright Alliance, of which SLA is a member, the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and the Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL) was distributed setting out the Library position on the WIPO Development Agenda. The joint paper, titled A Development Agenda for WIPO: Why libraries care, was distributed to the Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO Development Agenda, Fourth Session, in Geneva from 11-15 June, 2007. Read Joint Paper.

Google Budges on Search Server Logs
After some coercion from the European Union's Data Protection Working Party, Google has decided to reduce the amount of time it keeps search server logs to 18 months after the creation of the data, then they will be anonymized. Google made it clear that it would not change that data sooner than 18 months after and will continue to comply with laws that could require it to keep the information up to two years. Read Article.

Support Restoring Funding for the NHPRC
Support restored funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grants program by contacting your Congressional representatives.  The budget talks for 2008 started the week of June 18th. The NHPRC grants program is authorized at $10 million through FY 2009--in FY 2007, Congress appropriated $5.5 million for NHPRC grants and $2 million for administrative costs, despite the Administration's continued efforts to eliminate the program. Click here to write a letter.

Ninth Circuit Rules on Perfect 10 vs. Google
SLA and other organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Google. In Perfect 10 v. Google, the Ninth Circuit ruled with Google on most points. Perfect 10 had alleged that Google directly infringed by displaying thumbnail images of Perfect 10 photos in its image search results, as well as linking to third-party Web sites that displayed full sized infringing images. Further, Perfect 10 alleged that Google was secondarily liable for linking to these infringing images. The district court ruled that Google was not directly or secondarily liable for linking to the full sized images. Read Brief.

Google's New Project with the CIC
The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), a group of 12 research universities, has allowed Google to digitize select collections across all their libraries, up to 10 million volumes, as part of the Google Book Search project. Google will have the opportunity to scan some of the most distinctive collections from CIC's holdings, now over 75 million volumes. Some examples of this collection includes the University of Minnesota's Scandinavian and forestry collections, Michigan State's extensive holding in agriculture, Indiana University's folklore collection, and the history and culture of Chicago collection from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Read Article.

An Animated Look at Copyright and Fair Use
In this 10-minute movie by Eric Fadenm, all your Disney favorites explain copyright law. The film splices video and audio from different Disney movies to explain the workings and particulars of copyright law and the fair use doctrine. Read Article. Watch Movie.

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