C&RL News January 2015 50

Jazzy Wright is press offi  cer of the ALA Washington 
Offi  ce, email: jwright@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eJazzy Wright

ALA Washington O�  ce hosts 
copyright event “Too Good to be True”
On November 18, 2014, ALA held a panel 
discussion in Washington, D.C., on recent 
judicial interpretations of the doctrine of fair 
use. The discussion, entitled “Too Good to 
be True: Are the Courts Revolutionizing Fair 
Use for Education, Research and Libraries?” 
is the fi rst in a series of information policy 
discussions to help us chart the way forward 
as the ongoing digital revolution fundamen-
tally changes the way we access, process, 
and disseminate information. Event panel-
ists—ALA Legislative Counsel Jonathan Band; 
American University Practitioner-in-Practice 
Brandon Butler; and Authors Guild Execu-
tive Director Mary Rasenberger—engaged 
in a lively discussion that highlighted some 
points of agreement and disagreement be-
tween librarians and authors. The copyright 
event is part of the ALA Offi ce for Information 
Technology Policy’s broader Policy Revolu-
tion! initiative—an ongoing effort to establish 
and maintain a national public policy agenda 
that will amplify the voice of the library 
community in the policymaking process and 
position libraries to best serve their patrons 
in the years ahead.

ALA welcomes President Obama’s 
strong a�  rmation of net neutrality
In November, President Barack Obama re-
affi rmed his commitment to network neutral-
ity principles and to the strongest rules to 
protect the open Internet. ALA welcomed his 
statement and outline of principles that echo 
those of public comments fi led by ALA and 
a coalition of library and higher education 
organizations this year.

USA Freedom Act defeated in Senate
In November, ALA’s Washington Offi ce Ex-
ecutive Director Emily Sheketoff released a 
statement on the U.S. Senate’s failure to bring 

the USA FREEDOM Act, a bill that would 
have improved the balance between terrorism 
prevention and personal privacy protection, 
to the Senate fl oor for debate and an even-
tual up or down vote. The bill, which was 
backed by major civil liberties organizations, 
the White House, leading conservatives, and 
even the Director of National Intelligence, 
was denied consideration in the U.S. Senate 
by just two votes.

ALA welcomes Simon & Schuster 
change to Buy it Now program
ALA and its Digital Content Working Group 
welcomed Simon & Schuster’s November 
announcement that it will allow libraries 
to opt into the “Buy It Now” program. The 
publisher began offering all of its ebook titles 
for library lending nationwide in June 2014, 
with required participation in the “Buy It 
Now” merchandising program, which enables 
library users to directly purchase a title rather 
than check it out from the library. Simon & 
Schuster ebooks are available for lending 
for one year from the date of purchase. 

Upcoming ACRL e-Learning

ACRL is offering a variety of online semi-
nars and webcasts this winter. Upcoming 
topics include:

Rethinking the Book Container: Advanc-
ing the Role of the Library as Publisher 
(Webcast: January 21, 2015)

Action Research to Bridge Academic 
Scholarship and Everyday Practice 
(Webcast: February 5, 2015)

Virtual Reference 101 (Webcast: Febru-
ary 19, 2015)

Visit the ACRL e-Learning website at 
www.ala.org/acrl/onlinelearning for 
details.