------------------------
 
October 15, 1999
 
Speaker J. Dennis Hastert
U. S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC  20515
 
Dear Speaker Hastert,
 
We urge you to postpone floor  action on the "Trademark Cyberpiracy
Prevention Act" (H.R.3028) and to allow more time for consideration
of this controversial measure.
 
The current bill has serious defects that will hurt many users of
the Internet, including individuals, small businesses and
noncommercial organizations. H.R. 3028 demonstrates a strong bias
toward large, established corporations by expanding the rights of
trademark owners far beyond any given under existing law. It will
allow established corporations to drive away new competitors and
stifle innovation. The bill creates draconian statutory penalties
even if no damages are shown. The penalty provision enriches
trademark owners at the expense of e-commerce experimentation,
entrepreneurship, and the creative outreach efforts of commercial
and noncommercial organizations.
 
H.R. 3028 improperly gives U.S. courts jurisdiction over all domain
name cases, provided there is a trademark cause of action. The bill
creates "in rem" actions over all foreign and U.S. citizens who
happen to register a domain name with a U.S. registrar or registry.
Such provisions will drive away massive amounts of international
business from U.S. registrars and the U.S. registry Network
Solutions, stifling the active and growing international use of the
gTLDs (.com, .org, and .net).
 
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a body
established to promote the growth of the Internet and private
enterprise, is nearing completion of its consensus-building study
of the issues of trademark protection.  Its draft proposals suggest
that its new Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure, to be adopted
after an extensive review that seeks to balance commercial and
non-commercial interests as well as recognizing the essential global
nature of the network, will be a far more sensible approach . However,
H.R. 3028 moved from introduction in the House Judiciary Committee to
placement on the suspension calendar in just one week. This is far too
little time to give necessary consideration to a bill that will have
far-ranging implications for the growth of the Internet and that will
upset a carefully crafted compromise reached by Internet users and
providers.
 
We believe that H.R. 3028, in its current form, would
negatively impact millions of Internet users, Internet
entrepreneurs, small businesses, commercial and noncommercial
organizations. It is essential that the bill be given far greater
attention in order to address the rights and interests of all
Internet users. We would be happy to work with leadership and House
staff to correct the problems in H.R. 3028.
 
Sincerely,
 
 
Dr. Barbara Simons, President
Association for Computing Machinery
 
Randy Bush, Chair, ACM's Internet Governance Committee (ACM-IGC)
Vice President of Network Architecture, VERIO
 
Eugene H. Spafford
Professor and Director, Purdue University CERIAS
Chair, US ACM Public Policy Committee
 
Marc Rotenberg, Director, ACM Washington Office
 
Coralee Whitcomb, President
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
 
Kathryn A. Kleiman, Cofounder
Doman Name Rights Coalition
 
Dave Farber
EFF Trustee
 
Professor Tom W. Bell
Chapman University School of Law
 
Professor Paul Schiff Berman
University of Connecticut School of Law
 
C. Bradford Biddle
California Western School of Law
 
Professor Diane Cabell
Harvard Law School
 
Professor Julie Cohen
Georgetown University Law Center
 
Professor Michael Froomkin
University of Miami School of Law
 
Professor Ethan Katch
University of Massachusetts
 
Faye Jones
Hastings College of the Law Library
 
Professor Larry Lessig
Harvard Law School
 
Professor Jessica Litman
Wayne State University
 
Professor Malla Pollack
Florida State Univ, College of Law
 
Professor Margaret Jane Radin
Wm. Benjamin Scott & Luna M. Scott Professor of Law
Stanford University.
 
Professor Pam Samuelson
Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology,
Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley
 
David Sorkin
Center for Information Technology & Privacy Law,
The John Marshall Law School, Chicago
 
Jonathan Zittrain
Harvard Law School
 
 
 
 
 
  * * *
 
Cc:     Minority Leader Richard Gephardt
Chairman Tom Blilely, House Commerce Committee
        Representative John D. Dingell, House Commerce Committee
        Representative W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, House Subcommittee on
Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection
        Representative Ed Markey, House Subcommittee on
Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection
Chairman Henry Hyde, House Judiciary Committee
        Representative John Conyers, House Judiciary Committee
        Representative Howard Coble, House Subcommittee on Courts and
Intellectual Property
        Representative Howard Berman, House Subcommittee on Courts and
Intellectual Property
         Chairman David Dreier, House Rules Committee

Representative Joseph Moakley, House Rules Comm