InfoJustice Roundup – April 22, 2019

At Forum Honoring Prue Adler, Experts Recount Last Quarter-Century of Copyright Advocacy

[William New] On April 17, several generations of experts gathering at American University law school to remember, retell and relive highlights of 25 years of public interest advocacy around copyright and information access, and to look ahead – all with a focus on the unifying guidance of library advocate Prudence Adler, known to all as “Prue.” Click here for more.

The Cost of Novelty

[W. Nicholson Price] Abstract: Patent law tries to spur the development of new, better, innovative technology. But it focuses much more on “new” than “better” — and it turns out that “new” carries real social costs. I argue that patent law promotes innovation that diverges from existing technology, either a little (what I call “differentiating innovation”) or a lot (“exploring innovation”), at the expense of innovation that tells us more about existing technology (“deepening innovation”). Patent law’s focus on newness is unsurprising, and fits within a well-told narrative of innovative diversity accompanied by market selection of the best technologies. Unfortunately, innovative diversity brings not only the potential benefits of technological advances, but also costs: incompatibility between different technologies; a spread-out, shallow pool of knowledge; and the underlying costs of developing parallel technologies that aren’t actually better. These costs matter. Click here for more.

Bermuda Triangle – Licensing, Filtering and Privileging User-Generated Content Under the New Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market

[Martin Senftleben] Abstract: The new EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market creates a peculiar triangle of obligations to license, filter and privilege user-generated content (UGC). As it abolishes the traditional safe harbour for hosting in the case of copyrighted content, it may lead to the disappearance of the open, participative internet which EU citizens currently enjoy. To avoid the loss of open, democratic avenues for online content creation, national lawmakers will have to find the right amalgam of licensing and filtering obligations on the one hand, and new use privileges that offer room for user-generated content without prior authorization on the other. Click here for more.

Flexible South African Copyright Bill Rightly Factors in Swiftly Changing Tech Sector

[Andrew Rens] A bill to amend the 41-year-old Copyright Act has been passed by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on March 28 and now goes to the President for signature. Most of the media discussion on the bill has centered on how it will affect a legacy industry — publishing. But there has been surprisingly little discussion about the need to update copyright to cope with next-generation technologies. Click here for the full article on Business Day.

A Future of International Copyright? Berne and the Front Door Out

[Rebecca Giblin] Abstract: The Berne/TRIPS treaty pairing locks most of the world into outdated and effectively unamendable copyright structures. But members don’t have to comply with the treaties when it comes to their own nationals. In this paper, I argue that the future of international copyright might involve taking the ‘front door out’ – domestically departing from Berne/TRIPS minima to implement reforms that would reclaim currently lost value for authors and simultaneously improve access to knowledge and culture. Click here for more.
DNDi: “Bench-To-Bedside” Approach Needed For Drug & Vaccine Response To Global Health Crises

[Elaine Ruth Fletcher] Global health policymakers need to adopt a “bench-to-bedside” approach to research and development, to ensure that new drugs and vaccines are not only put into the development pipeline, but are also readily available for responding to global health crises such as Ebola, says Michelle Childs of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi). Childs, DNDi’s head of policy and advocacy, was a key speaker at a seminar this week with industry, civil society, and UN representatives on “Policies and Practices for Effective Response to Global Health Crises,” sponsored by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The day-long seminar on Tuesday brought together the diverse groups to share success stories and exchange views about how intellectual property (IP) can either be an enabler of innovation, or a barrier to access that hinders effective emergency response to crises such as the recent Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has so far killed over 1,000 people. Click here for more on healthpolicy-watch.org.

Global Discussions on Exceptions and Limitations to Copyright for Libraries Continue

[International Federation of Library Associations] It’s time to look back at a of week global discussions on copyright at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). There were useful new reports and materials, signs of consensus on all sides that exceptions and limitations are an essential part of the copyright framework, and further proof that action is needed to allow libraries to work across borders. Click here for more.

Nobel Laureate Takes Stance Against Allowing Research to Be Intellectual Property

[Trice Brown] George Smith, recipient of a 2018 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, spoke to a crowd of students and faculty about the problems that arise from making publicly funded research intellectual property. Smith said one of the greatest problems facing the scientific research community is the ability of universities to claim intellectual property rights on publicly funded research. “I think that all research ought not to have intellectual — not to be intellectual property,” Smith said. “It’s the property of everyone.” Click here for the full story on the Auburn Plainsman website.