COPYRIGHT EXCEPTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING

Reading Aloud: Fair Use Enables Translating Classroom Practices to Online Learning

[Meredith Jacob, Peter Jaszi, Prue Adler, Michael Carroll, Will Cross, Kristina Ishmael, Pernille Ripp and Carrie Russell] In recent days, as many teachers have faced an abrupt shift to online teaching, there have been questions about how copyright law applies to the translation of classroom-based practices of reading aloud to students to the digital environment. While many well-intentioned commentators have warned teachers against this practice, the fact is that copyright law — specifically fair use — permits many read-aloud activities online. As instructors and learners adapt to new educational environments, copyright concerns about reading aloud need not be among the challenges they face. Click here for more. 

Public Statement of Library Copyright Specialists: Fair Use & Emergency Remote Teaching & Research

[Statement signed by over 150 librarians] This Statement is meant to provide clarity for U.S. colleges and universities about how copyright law applies to the many facets of remote teaching and research in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. We write this as copyright specialists at colleges, universities, and other organizations supporting higher education in the U.S. and Canada who work every day with faculty, staff, and librarians to enable them to make ethical and legal choices about copyright issues in online teaching. Click here for more. 

Fair Dealing and Emergency Remote Teaching In Canada

[Samuel Trosow and Lisa Macklem] In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, Canadian post-secondary institutions are replacing classroom-based instruction with online teaching for the remainder of the Winter/Spring 2020 semester. … As instructors grapple with the mechanics of making this unanticipated conversion, most attention is focused on how to use technological tools to accomplish this transition. Less attention is being given to copyright issues. We are worried that without some affirmative intervention in the form of copyright training, opportunities to take advantage of Canada’s broad fair-dealing rights may be missed. This article explains how copyright law applies to online course materials. We hope it will assist instructors, librarians, teaching assistants, students and administrators working in Canadian colleges and universities. Click here for more.

COVID-19 AND ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE

Patents and Coronavirus – Compulsory Licensing, Government Use and March-In Rights

[Jorge Contreras] The United States has two viable statutory mechanisms for addressing situations in which patent holders are unable or unwilling to supply sufficient quantities of goods or services to combat the coronavirus crisis: march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act and governmental use under 28 U.S.C. § 1498. Though each of these mechanisms presents challenges, these should be surmountable in many cases to ensure that diagnostics, vaccines, therapies and support equipment are produced and distributed rapidly and in sufficient quantities. Click here for more. 

Rationale for Supporting Costa Rica’s Proposal for Emergency Covid-19 Technology IP Pool for All Countries

[Brook Baker] The world is behind in developing and being able to supply the diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, medical devices, and other well adapted medical supplies (medical technologies) needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic which is sweeping across the globe. Although scientific and medical urgency are building, we need to ensure that the needed medical technologies will be developed and tested urgently, efficiently, and ethically with maximum degrees of open data, open science, and collaboration in the development stage and maximum degrees of universal and equitable access thereafter to all people in all countries. We therefore support the creation of a voluntary emergency Technology Intellectual Property Pool [TIPP] that will accelerate scientific discovery, technology development, proof of safety/efficacy/quality, and broad sharing of the benefits of scientific advancement and its applications in furtherance of the right to health. Click here for more. 
 
See also: Brook Baker. Drug Companies Are Running Scared – Let’s Make Them Run Faster. Link. 

Intellectual Property and Trade Measures to Address the Covid-19 Crisis

[South Centre] As the Covid-19 virus continues to spread globally, immediate actions to fight the pandemic is a major priority for all governments. In this time of crisis, the timeliness of response is critical. A coordinated global effort is required to ensure access to affordable, safe and effective treatments, diagnostics and vaccines that are developed, as well as access to medical supplies and devices. The South Centre views with concern the attempts by some governments and industry players to monopolize the availability of those products for their own nationalist agenda or to maximize profit, ahead of societal interest in tackling this global public health emergency. The private enforcement of patents and government trade restrictions may pose a dire threat to the containment of the Covid-19 pandemic. Click here for more. 

COVID-19 AND TECHNOLOGY

Society’s Dependence on the Internet: 5 Cyber Issues the Coronavirus Lays Bare

[Laura DeNardis and Jennifer Daskal] … While the online world is often portrayed as a societal ill, this pandemic is a reminder of how much the digital world has to offer. The pandemic also lays bare the many vulnerabilities created by society’s dependence on the internet. These include the dangerous consequences of censorship, the constantly morphing spread of disinformation, supply chain vulnerabilities and the risks of weak cybersecurity. Click here for more.

Lessons From China on the Coronavirus and the Dangers of App Consolidation

[Jennifer Daskal and Mia Shuang Li] While quarantined in her Wuhan apartment for days on end, the woman who calls herself “Sister Ma” suddenly found herself blocked from her account on WeChat, a platform used by more than 1 billion people in China. Without WeChat, she was cut off from communication with friends and family, the ability to order critical supplies, and contact with her children’s school… These concerns may seem distant to Westerners. But Facebook is seeking to consolidate WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook into a single superapp, to be eventually connected with Libra, the Facebook-developed crypto coin, assuming it can get off the ground. And Mark Zuckerberg has pointed to the China-based behemoth Tencent as his model. While antitrust, anti-competition concerns have been widely aired (and may ultimately lead to the plan’s downfall), there are also independent-speech and censorship-related reasons to be wary, as Tencent’s behavior demonstrates. Click here for more on Slate.

SOUTH AFRICA COPYRIGHT BILL

South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill – One Year On

[Denise Nicholson] On 28th March 2019, South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill was approved by the upper house of Parliament in South Africa, the National Council of Provinces, clearing the way for the President to sign the Bill into law. The long awaited Bill brings the 1978 Copyright Act, adopted in a pre-internet era, into the digital age – rules regarding libraries, archives, education and research had never been updated during this time. But one year on, the Bill has not been signed into law. Click here for more. 

Creative Commons South Africa Letter to President in Support of the Copyright Amendment Bill

[Paul G. West, Derek Moore, Klaus Beiter and J.A.K. Olivier] Hereto our urgent request for the signing of the Copyright Amendment Bill, as was passed by both Houses and sent to your Office for assent after it was approved on 28 March 2019. We wish to specifically address the significance of the proposed amendments to the South African Copyright Act for access to learning materials in schools and higher education institutions in South Africa. The proposed “fair use” provision and specific exceptions for additional educational uses are not only compatible with international copyright law (the Berne Convention, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and so on). They also pass the three-step test of international copyright law, as understood by the majority of international copyright law scholars. Click here for more.