Dear Colleagues

Apologies for cross-posting and the length. Here we go again for hopefully
the last push. My message last time was just a tad optimistic as the
copyright eminences of the LA Copyright Alliance (who met last Tuesday)
thought that further amendments were no longer possible! In fact the MEPs
had until noon yesterday to table more amendments and there are 46, some of
which are very bad. 

Below is an urgent letter just now received from Teresa Hackett of Eblida.
Please do as she asks and contact the UK MEPs again by e-mail or by fax to
Strasbourg and you can use her text given in the link below for the draft
letter on the Eblida web site as a Word rtf document. The UK MEPs have been
pretty supportive of our view, some very, so also ask them to persuade their
foreign MEP colleagues likewise. 
*       The link below to the Excel file on the Eblida web site will also
give you their Strasbourg fax numbers as well as their europarl e-mails. 
*       The link for the UK MEPs by region is at
http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/mainframe.html
<http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/mainframe.html>   This will remind you
which are your own MEPs and is OK for the e-mails (except that where non
europarl e-mails are given for an MEP you can also copy to the europarl one
which will be on the Eblida spreadsheet).  This site won't give you
Strasbourg fax numbers.

Sandy Norman thinks it could be worthwhile to also write directly yourselves
to the two foreign MEPs who have tabled the most damaging amendments
(described as the "worst offenders" in Teresa's covering letter below): Frau
Mercedes Echerer MEP (Austria, Green) Strasbourg fax: +33 (03) 8817 9215
E-mail: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> , and Sr
Manuel Medina Ortega (Spain, Socialist)  Strasbourg fax: +33 (03) 8817 9882
E-mail: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>    If you
can write in the appropriate mother tongue - all to the good, but if you
write in English it is still worthwhile.  Please also get your foreign
colleagues to write to their national MEPs (and to Echerer and Medina
Ortega), especially to those in the PES (socialist) political group, the
ELDR group (liberals) and the Greens, using the Eblida text if they wish.  

As many of you won't see this until Monday morning, please act on it very
quickly then. The Parliament discusses the Directive on Tuesday Feb 13th and
votes that day or on Wednesday Feb 14th . Thank you again for your massive
support so far. 

Yours sincerely
Barbara Stratton
Information Manager, Members' Information Centre
E-mail:  <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
[log in to unmask]   Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0624 (direct)
The Library Association, 7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0500 Fax: +44 (0)20 7255 0501 Textphone: +44 (0)20 7255
0505 
General email:  <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]  Web:
<http://www.la-hq.org.uk/> www.la-hq.org.uk/  

 


Dear friends and colleagues,

ACTION PLAN
Please contact (email/fax/phone) your national MEPs in their constituency
over the weekend urging them to reject the amendments below! Or contact them
in Strasbourg before the vote on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Go to:
www.eblida.org/allmeps.xls <http://www.eblida.org/allmeps.xls>  (Excel file)
for Strasbourg contact details.
Draft letter at: www.eblida.org/plenary.rtf
<http://www.eblida.org/plenary.rtf>  
For MEPs who have not been following the directive, it is important to keep
the message simple.
Optional extras are that they will be banned from their local public library
for life and that you will never vote for them again.
THE LATEST NEWS
Our lobby must continue for a couple more days.  There have been 45
amendments tabled for the second reading of the draft copyright directive,
15 compromise amendments from Boselli which were adopted by the Legal
Affairs Committee and 30 further amendments. This is unusually large for a
second reading.  Some MEPs tried to re-table amendments which were rejected
but did not get the required support. ;-) But some of our old friends teamed
up and have tabled even worse amendments, especially for libraries.
The worst offenders are:
Amendment 22 by MEP Medina Ortega on Article 5.2c which limits copying by
libraries to that which is needed for 'archiving  and conservation purposes'
only.
Amendment 37 by MEP Echerer on Article 5.2c
This is even worse that AM22,as it stipulates that the information must be
for 'strictly internal use'. So a library would be prohibited from providing
a service to its users! In addition, educational establishments would NO
LONGER BENEFIT from this exception.
Amendment 26 by MEP Medina Ortega on Article 5.3o.  This is a *new*
amendment and is truly awful. I have checked with the Commission and it
seems that he is allowed to table such a new amendment. This refers to the
lending directive and affects existing library services which concern
*print* material, and is aimed at preventing libraries from sharing
resources (ILL).
There are many other bad amendments affecting Article 5.1 (temporary
fleeting copies), Article 5.2b (private copying) and others. Medina Ortega
has tabled the worst of Rothley's amendments, instead of his own. Medina
Ortega and Echerer have both re-tabled their amendments that if you tape
your favourite (digital) TV programme to watch it at a more convenient time,
you should pay. Don't you look forward to the digital age?! For these
people, digital = pay.
So, we need to make some noise. If you have journalists pals, please try to
get coverage in the press. The debate will take place between 21.00-24.00 on
Tuesday and the vote will either be on Tuesday after the debate or on
Wednesday.
Sorry this comes late in the day. If you or an MEP needs more information, I
am available over the weekend on my mobile:
0031 6 204 16579.
Thank you for your support.
Teresa

Teresa Hackett, Director
EBLIDA
P.O. Box 43300
NL-2504 AH The Hague
Tel: +31-70-309 0608
Mobile: +31-6-20416579
Fax: +31-70-309 0708
Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
www.eblida.org <http://www.eblida.org> 
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EBLIDA Lobbying for Libraries
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