Peter Jaszi and I are asking for other Copyright experts and academics to support a letter to Colombian officials on their pending Copyright reform. The link to the letter and a quick and easy sign-on form is at: http://infojustice.org/colombia-copyright-bill
We ask for expressions of support by Thursday July 18 so that we can release the letter at meetings in Colombia next week.
This letter follows the expression of concern many of us voiced last year when Colombia sought to implement its U.S. Free Trade Agreement IP chapter through a rushed process with a bill that implemented only proprietor rights increases with no correlative updating of the country’s limitations and exceptions. http://infojustice.org/archives/9414
Subsequently, that bill was blocked by a Constitutional Court ruling that demanded that a fuller public process be followed.
With the introduction of a new bill (available athttp://infojustice.org/archives/29697) and the opening of the public process, seehttp://infojustice.org/archives/29876, we were asked by local information policy activists at Karisma Foundation http://karisma.org.co/ for a review of the new bill.
As the letter details, we find that the new bill repeats many of the excesses of the older bill — lacking many important limitations and exceptions that are permitted by the FTA and found in US law. This letter points out some of those specific areas where the legislation appears excessive, and it recommends that the legislature consider adding a general exception that has the flexibility of U.S.-style fair use to provide more complete protection of the public interest.
I hope you will join us in supporting this appeal.
– Peter Jaszi and Sean Flynn
American University Washington College of Law
