HWachs's blog

On Wednesday, July 18, 2007, the House Judiciary Committee conducted a markup and passed H.R. 1908, the Patent Reform Act of 2007.  Representative Berman said he hopes to take the legislation to the full House for a vote before the August recess. 

The committee voted to approve an extensive manager’s amendment during the markup.  In addition, six other amendments to the legislation were approved.  The text of all seven amendments can be found on the House Judiciary Committee website at http://judiciary.house.gov/.  

Colleagues,

The following call to action has been sent to all EDUCAUSE Primary Reps on behalf of ACE, AAU, NASULGC, and EDUCAUSE. Please help us with IMMEDIATE CALLS or EMAILS, there is no time to waste!

Best regards,

Mark Luker

Vice President

EDUCAUSE

____________________________________________

TO: Institutional Primary Reps

RE: EDUCAUSE Urgent Request

URGENT, ACT TODAY: AMENDMENT HARMFUL TO HIGHER EDUCATION

Dear Colleague,

I am writing to ask your help in a matter of urgency to higher education in general and the IT community in particular: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) intends to offer a very harmful amendment, involving illegal file sharing, to the Higher Education Reauthorization Act when the Senate turns to this issue on July 22-23. The amendment can be found at <http://tinyurl.com/2x45d2>. The amendment:

*  Makes the Secretary of Education an agent of the entertainment industry;

*  Requires the Secretary to take action using data given to her by the entertainment industry that is terribly inaccurate;

The House Science and Technology Committee held a full committee hearing on June 5 to discuss “The Role of Technology in Reducing Illegal Filesharing: A University Perspective.”  The witnesses represented four campuses and one technology vendor including (click on each name for witness testimony):