Intellectual Property Issues in the Library Network Context. Proceedings of the Library of Congress Network Advisory Committee Meeting (Washington, D.C., March 23-25, 1988). Network Planning Paper Number 17.

The first half of the proceedings consists of three papers presented during the program session of a Library of Congress Network Advisory Committee (NAC) meeting. The first, a background paper by Robert L. Oakley, identifies some of the problems that modern information technology has created for the intellectual property system in the United States; reviews several alternative proposals for dealing with the problems; briefly examines the ways in which Canada and the United States have approached the same issues; and concludes that these problems are solvable through amendment, new "sui generis" approaches, and expanded roles for an administrative agency, or through the development of voluntary or compulsory licensing mechanisms. In the second paper, Shirley Echelman comments on issues raised by Robert Oakley's report, and summarizes presentations given at a previous program session. The third paper, by Robert J. Kost, interprets an Office of Technology Assessment report about intellectual property rights and explains why the marriage between the law and technology is currently "on the rocks." The second half of the proceedings is a report on the business session of the NAC. Appendixes include the meeting agenda; a list of working groups; criteria for membership in the NAC; a list of suggested and prioritized topics for future research on networking; and a statement from the American Library Association on the phone companies' open network architecture plans filed with the Federal Communications Commission and a request for input on these plans from libraries. (SD)