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sharing services to either close or alter their business practices to discourage the sharing
of copyrighted materials.
Also debated is the matter of what information may be copyrighted. The Database and
Collections of Information Misappropriation Act, now pending in Congress, would permit
the copyrighting of aggregated factual data, such as databases of names and addresses.
This measure would make it easier for the creators of databases to earn money. However,
by preventing the copying of such aggregations, the measure would also restrict the use of
publicly available information.

Rights of Gays, Lesbians, and Sexual Minorities

Federal law does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. However,
an executive order bars the federal government from such discrimination in hiring. In
addition, 17 states, the District of Columbia, and more than 180 cities and localities
prohibit discrimination by sexual orientation in private employment.

Battles are underway in many states to determine whether the right to marry should be
extended to same-sex couples. Same-sex marriages or similar civil contracts are currently
recognized in 20 countries and eight U.S. states, though in most cases civil unions, and
not marriage, have been sanctioned. Twenty-six states have passed constitutional
amendments that explicitly ban recognition of same-sex partnerships, and 43 states,
including some of those that allow same-sex civil unions, define marriage by statute as a
union between a man and a woman. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act forbids the federal
government from recognizing same-sex or polygamous marriages and allows states where
such marriages are illegal to decline to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other
states.

1 Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005,” bulletin, May
2006, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/pjim05.p
2 International Centre for Prison Studies, “World Prison Brief,” King’s College, University of
London, http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/worldbrief/world_brief.html.
3 Dan Seligman, “Lock ’Em Up,” Forbes, May 23, 2005.
4 Brandon Rottinghouse, Incarceration and Enfranchisement: International Practices, Impact
and Recommendations for Reform (Washington, D.C.: International Foundation for Election
Systems, 2003).

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