The Digital Future Coalition (DFC) was a US-based copyright advocacy organization established in 1995. Founded by leading scholars and activists in the library and public interest world, DFC was a precursor to organizations like

Public Knowledge Public Knowledge is an American non-profit organization, non-profit advocacy, public interest group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2001 by David Bollier, Gigi Sohn, and Laurie Racine, Public Knowledge is primarily involved in the fields of ...

and the Library Research Coalition. The organization emerged from a round table of legal scholars and library associations members convened by Peter Jaszi in fall of 1995 to review the

Clinton Administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...

's White Paper on Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure, authored by Bruce Lehman. That White Paper proposed a variety of new legislative approaches within copyright, generally broadening its scope and reach, and the roundtable discussion brought forward the notion of establishing a lobbying group to counter the commercial copyright interests' lobbying groups. The DFC had at its peak at least 42 institutional members, drawn from library associations, scholarly societies, public interest groups, and IT-related commercial entities. The organization was active in the legislative debates and lobbying surrounding the

Digital Millennium Copyright Act The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...

, the

Copyright Term Extension Act The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act – also known as the Copyright Term Extension Act, Sonny Bono Act, or (derisively) the Mickey Mouse Protection Act – extended copyright terms in the United States in 1998. It is one of several ac ...

, and proposed database protection legislation, and was instrumental in inserting limiting provisions and exceptions into the DMCA and CTEA, and in defeating the proposed database protection legislation.Jacob Roberts
"Jaszi Honored with 2007 Patterson Copyright Award"

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

''District Dispatch'', March 22, 2007. (See Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act, H.R. 3261, 108th Congress.)

Significant reports, comments, etc.

Comments of the Digital Future Coalition
Aug./Sept. 2000, Submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office, Pursuant to Sec. 104 of the

, in Response to Request for Comments, 65 F.R. 35673.
"Statement of the Digital Future Coalition Regarding W.I.P.O. Implementing Legislation"
1997.
Statement of Intended Testimony of the Digital Future Coalition
before the United States Copyright Office on incidental copies * Collection of testimony and submissions in ''Copyright and the NII: Resources for the Library and Education Community'',

Association of Research Libraries The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research library at comprehensive, research institutions in Canada and the United States. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and research li ...

(May 1996)

Members

Membership rosters drawn from public comments and filings, but changed over time.Comments of the Digital Future Coalition
Aug./Sept. 2000, Submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office, Pursuant to Sec. 104 of the

, in Response to Request for Comments, 65 F.R. 35673.

Notes

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External links

Archives of the DFC.org website
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

; the domain was eventually taken over by an unrelated dance organization after the Digital Future Coalition ceased operations. Copyright law organizations Organizations established in 1995 Organizations based in the United States Organizations disestablished in the 21st century