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Dear Colleagues Apologies again for cross posting. Time is very short. This is round two! Your lobbying is really making a difference as you will see below, but there is still a fight on our hands. You have responded brilliantly to the first call to arms so please help again! As we don't have the financial resources of the music and publishing industries to win friends and influence people, your personal voice to your own MEPs really counts and has effect. It is most important at this stage to ask MEPs not only to reject amendments 95-104, but to also persuade their colleagues in the other Member States to do so - especially at this stage those who sit on the Legal Affairs Committee (LAC). MEPs belong to parliamentary political groupings which include MEPs from across the Member States eg. the Greens, the Socialists etc. (For an explanation of all this look at http://www.europarl.org.uk/guide_to/mainframe.html) Thanks to those who wrote to their MEPs last time and who forwarded their MEPs' replies to me. These were very useful. Another urgent message from Sandy Norman (the LA's Copyright Adviser and Secretary to the LA Copyright Alliance) follows below with suggested text for you to use if you wish. Thank you all. Yours sincerely Barbara Stratton Information Manager. Members' Information Centre The Library Association E-mail: [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- Dear Colleagues We still need more help to get the Directive back in balance! A really big thank you to all those who responded to the first call to lobby their MEPs on the EU Copyright Directive. The response from MEPs has been terrific ranging from to an acknowledgement of the problems to promising positive support. Several MEPs have offered to contact their colleagues in the party or on the Legal Affairs Committee (LAC) to relay the problems. Just to bring you up to date, the Legal Affairs Committee met on the 29th to discuss Boselli's draft report and the amendments but they have postponed the vote until 5th February. This is mainly because there was a division between the Socialist MEPs (PES). Apparently they could not agree a party line. Cynics are saying that this delay will give the anti exceptions lobby time to regroup and consider tactics. This just might be the case. We have had a sight of which amendments have been withdrawn. There is some good news. Neil MacCormick for instance has withdrawn all his amendments and Arlene McCarthy has withdrawn some of hers. Of the others, Boselli has indicated which ones he could and could not support. Some of the ones he could support include amendments 95-104 which happen to be the disastrous library ones! It is really bad if Boselli has not considered these to be affecting the balance of the Common Position. One of the organisations behind these proposed amendments is IFRRO - International Federation of Reproduction Rights Owners - the international arm of the CLA. So we still have everything to fight for. Please could you contact your own MEP(s) once again including any LAC members from your region, thank them for what they have done, urge them to reject amendments 95-104 and to persuade their colleagues in the other Member States to do so too (most important). Just to remind you, the names and contacts for all UK MEPs by electoral region can be found at http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/mainframe.html See below for list of UK MEPs on the Legal Affairs Committee. Some suggested points to make - where possible, please now personalise them as this is follow up correspondence eg. copy and paste the bullet points below but personalise the topping and tailing (even give examples to illustrate any of the points if you can and feel free to think up others). Please lobby them as soon as possible as the LAC vote is now scheduled for Monday 5th February. * There are about 190,000 library service points in Europe with 122 million members registered in these libraries. The public interest exceptions will help these libraries to perform their services. Making European law more restrictive than international treaties will deprive European citizens of their right to access and use information. * Librarians uphold the law. They are not pirates and do not condone piracy. They respect copyright and make their users aware of the limits of copying. Copying in libraries is carefully controlled to ensure balance between protection for rights holders and reasonable access. * Librarians must not be restricted to copying only for archiving and conservation. Not being able to copy for other purposes - purposes which have been recognised for the last 50 years as being acceptable - will stifle access to information. This Directive does not only cover digital uses, it will affect copying from print-based material. Copying under statutory exceptions does not interfere with the Internal Market. objectives. * Libraries underpin research and education. Existing and potential authors and researchers need reasonable access to works contained in libraries. Having to pay for each item will create a barrier. * The EU should not be allowed to dictate how Member States formulate their laws outside of the aims of the Single Market. List of MEPs on the LAC * Mr Bill Miller MEP (socialist) fax: 00-32-2-284-9715; email: [log in to unmask] * Ms Arlene McCarthy MEP (socialist) fax: 00-32-2-284-9501; email: [log in to unmask] * Mr Malcolm Harbour MEP (conservative) fax 00-32-2-284-9132; [log in to unmask] * The Lord Inglewood MEP (conservative) fax: 00-32-2-284-9309; email [log in to unmask] * Ms Diana Wallis MEP (liberal) fax: 00-32-2-284-9201; email: [log in to unmask] * Ms Theresa Villiers MEP (conservative) fax: 00-32-2-284-9792: email: [log in to unmask] * Ms Mel Read MEP (socialist) fax: 00-32-2-284-9511; email: [log in to unmask] * Professor Neil MacCormick MEP (Green group, SNP) fax: 00-32-2-284-9480; email [log in to unmask] Sandy Norman, Copyright Consultant, [log in to unmask]