Authors: Richard; Hammer

Beyond Obsession (45 page)

Throughout the spring of 1991 writers and representatives of the Authors Guild met on a number of occasions with members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate and with committee staff in an effort to draft federal legislation that would restore the concept of fair use to near where it had existed in the past. Initially these efforts were resisted strenuously by the American computer industry, which believed that the old concept of fair use posed a serious threat to its control over the software used in computers. If a fair use doctrine were enacted into law, the computer industry maintained, it would permit wholesale piracy of its programsâthat is, allow foreign competitors to break its unpublished software codes, make a few revisions and then sell those programs as their own. Late in the spring, however, representatives of the authors and the computer industry reached a compromise that would, in essence, protect software from piracy and at the same time permit authors fair use of unpublished documents. Legislation reflecting that compromise was introduced in both the Senate and the House, and passage seemed assured.

However, publishers are still concerned that such legislation will be challenged in the courts, and so before fair use can again be established as a viable doctrine, the courts will have to rule. Until such decisions are forthcoming, from the courts of appeals or the Supreme Court, most publishers continue to restrict severely what may be quoted from court documents, letters and other unpublished materials without the express permission of the writer or heirs.

Dennis Coleman, understanding that only his own words could adequately express his state of mind and all the pressures upon him, agreed to grant me permission to quote extensively from what he wrote, and for this I am most grateful.

Karin Aparo refused to grant permission to quote from her letters and diaries in this book, though many excerpts previously appeared in newspapers in Connecticut and are part of the court record of her trial, read into that record not by the prosecution but by her defense. It has been necessary, then, for me to try to give the reader not the words as she wrote them but, rather, the substance and sense, as I see them, of what she wrote. I would have preferred it otherwise, as I am certain the reader would have, but until and unless the courts act in a positive manner to permit the unfettered and fair use of documents in the public record, there is no other choice. Would it were not so.

About the Author

Richard Hammer is the author of more than twenty fiction and nonfiction books, as well as numerous short stories, articles, and essays for major publications worldwide. He has won two Edgar Awards for Best Fact Crime, for
The Vatican Connection
(1982) and
The CBS Murders
(1987), and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for
The Court-Martial of Lt. Calley
(1971). Both the
New York Times
and the
Washington Post
named
One Morning in the War
(1970) and
The Court-Martial of Lt. Calley
one of the ten best books of the respective years in which they were published. Hammer's first book,
Between Life and Death
(1969), explored the case that led to the landmark Supreme Court decision in
Brady v. Maryland
and its repercussions. He wrote and narrated the Academy Awardâwinning documentary
Interviews with My-Lai Veterans
(1970), and has been involved in many TV films and motion pictures. Before becoming a full-time freelance writer, he wrote for the
New York Times
and its Week in Review section, where he covered the war in Vietnam, the civil rights struggle, and most other major stories of the times. A native of Hartford, Connecticut, Hammer attended Mount Hermon School, earned degrees from Syracuse University and Trinity College, and did postgraduate work at Columbia University. He and his wife currently reside in New York City.

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Cover design by Jason Gabbert

ISBN: 978-1-5040-3909-3

This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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