[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 3 (Thursday, January 29, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S205-S206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    THE IMPORTANCE OF RATIFYING THE WIPO TREATIES AND ENACTING WIPO 
                        IMPLEMENTING LEGISLATION

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I hope that the Senate will make a new 
year's resolution to focus its energy on issues that create American 
jobs, protect American ingenuity, and improve the lives of the American 
people. I was disappointed last year that we wasted so much of the 
Senate's limited time on partisan and divisive issues.
  This year the Senate should be in the business of doing America's 
business. We should be working in a bipartisan manner to enact 
copyright term extension legislation so that America's trading partners 
will recognize American copyrighted works for the same term that those 
countries grant their own national works. We should be passing 
encryption legislation to allow American hi-tech companies the freedom 
to compete vigorously in the global marketplace. We should be enacting 
patent reform legislation to help American innovators, big and small.
  High on the Senate's agenda for doing America's business should be 
ratifying the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties 
and enacting WIPO implementing legislation. To this end, I would like 
to take a few moments to discuss why we should care about these WIPO 
treaties, how America will benefit when we ratify these treaties, and 
how we can get the job done.


                             WE SHOULD CARE

  Those who care about America's economy and America's creative spirit 
should care about the WIPO treaties. Ratification of these treaties 
will help protect and enhance U.S. intellectual property rights 
throughout the world. In the body of the Constitution as originally 
ratified, the word ``right'' appears only once and that is with regard 
to the protection of intellectual property. From our beginnings as a 
Nation, the Constitution has included within Congress' enumerated 
powers, authority ``To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, 
by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive 
Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.'' The importance of 
protecting and encouraging the intellectual creations of our citizens 
has always been a fundamental priority for our country and a 
responsibility of our national government.
  Today, millions of Americans owe their jobs and prosperity to 
industries created by America's innovators and creators. The 
International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) released a 1996 
study prepared by Economists Incorporated that outlined the 
contribution of U.S. intellectual property industries to the U.S. gross 
domestic product, employment, and foreign trade. It detailed, for 
instance, that in 1994, copyright industries contributed an estimated 
$385 billion to the U.S. economy, accounting for approximately 5.7% of 
the GDP. The study concluded that during the period from 1984 to 1994, 
job growth in the core copyright industries was twice as fast as 
employment growth in the economy as a whole. Regarding foreign sales, 
the study found that the copyright industries' exports are larger than 
the exports of almost all other leading industry sectors.
  In addition to the economic boon that they provide this country, the 
intellectual property rights granted to U.S. citizens have fostered the 
creative spirit of the American people. From the days of Benjamin 
Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to the dawning of the coming century, 
American creative geniuses abound in the visual arts, recording, 
writing, and software development industries. The U.S. leads the world 
in creative products. What other country can boast of the multitude of 
creative, artistic, and technological visionaries?


                          AMERICA WILL BENEFIT

  Because the U.S. is the world-wide leader in intellectual property, 
the U.S. will be the main beneficiary if the U.S. Senate ratifies the 
WIPO treaties and the Congress enacts WIPO implementing legislation.
  Secretary Daley has observed that ``the treaties largely incorporate 
intellectual property norms that are already part of U.S. law.'' The 
Administration has concluded that the U.S. need only make two 
substantive changes and several non-substantive changes to U.S. law to 
bring it into compliance with the treaty requirements. What the 
treaties will do is give American owners of copyrighted material 
essentially the same protections for their intellectual property in 
those foreign countries that become party to the treaties as they enjoy 
here in the United States.
  Let me give you an example. The U.S. already has a distribution right 
of the sort provided in the treaty. Many other countries, however, do 
not yet recognize this right. So if a U.S. publishing company suspects 
that its books are being illegally copied in a country that does not 
have a distribution right, it cannot go after the distributor of the 
illegally copied goods in that country. Imagine trying to stop illegal 
drug usage if you couldn't go after the drug distributors. That is the 
problem that our copyrighted industries face battling piracy in many 
countries throughout the world today.


                          GETTING THE JOB DONE

  We should consider and pass the WIPO Copyright and Performances and 
Phonograms Treaty Implementation Act, S.1121, which I cosponsored with 
Senators Hatch, Thompson and Kohl last July. I hope that the Senate 
will

[[Page S206]]

not further delay in examining the impact of the treaties and the 
implementing legislation. We need to expedite the process of resolving 
issues essential to S.1121.
  I intend to work with the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee on 
these important matters. I want to commend Senator Hatch for the time 
he has spent and is spending seeking to resolve matters that have 
become impediments to progress on important intellectual property 
matters.
  Unfortunately, these important legislative matters were stalled last 
year by linkage to additional issues not necessary to their enactment. 
We made no progress on the treaties and implementing legislation. 
America cannot afford further delay.
  Some have expressed concern that ratification of the WIPO treaties 
and enactment of implementing legislation threaten to increase what 
they perceive to be a current risk that they will be held liable for 
copyright infringements by users whose conduct they can neither prevent 
nor control. They are demanding legislation limiting their copyright 
liability and demanding that it be resolved before ratification of the 
WIPO treaties and passage of implementing legislation can proceed.
  The extent to which and circumstances under which copyright liability 
may be imposed on online service providers is a matter that I believe 
could easily be dealt with separately from the WIPO treaties and 
implementing legislation. Were service provider liability to be 
considered legislatively, I think that Congress would be better off 
working toward carefully targeted clarifications of the law rather than 
attempting to legislate wholesale reform that risks becoming obsolete 
in a short time, or freezing industry practices and preventing them 
from evolving as efficiently as possible.
  Vinton Cerf, the co-inventor of the computer networking protocol for 
the Internet, stated in The New York Times:

       The Internet is now perhaps the most global and democratic 
     form of communications. No other medium can so easily render 
     outdated our traditional distinctions among localities, 
     regions and nations.

  We see opportunities to break through barriers previously facing 
those living in rural settings and those with physical disabilities. 
Democratic values can be served by making more information and services 
available.
  Technological developments, such as the development of the Internet 
and remote computer information databases, are leading to important 
advancements in accessibility and affordability of art, literature, 
music, film, information and services for all Americans. Properly 
balancing copyright interests to encourage and reward creativity, while 
serving the needs of public access is the challenge. Historically, the 
government's role has been to encourage creativity and innovation by 
protecting copyrights that create incentives for the dissemination to 
the public of new works and forms of expression.
  Intellectual property can, at times, be arcane and abstract. But 
these matters have very real and important consequences to the American 
economy and creative spirit, and the viability of industries that 
produce everything from movies to records to books to software depends 
on it. That means that the American people are depending on us to put 
partisan differences aside. We may not make headline news by working on 
WIPO implementing legislation, but we will help create American jobs.

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