Comments to the Mexican Senate on Copyright Provisions in the NAFTA Renegotiation

[Sean Flynn] I am here to speak about the importance of including provisions in NAFTA to protect the abilities of countries to have general and open public interest copyright exceptions. All three countries have such exceptions to varying degree. And all three are under threat from the agenda of some copyright holders in international forums. Click here for more.

Open Education Week: Mar 5 – 9

Open Education Week’s goal is to raise awareness about free and open educational opportunities that exist for everyone, everywhere, right now.  We want to highlight how open education can help people meet their goals in education, whether that’s to develop skills and knowledge for work, supporting formal studies, learning something new for personal interest, or looking for additional teaching resources. For more, see https://www.openeducationweek.org/

Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week: Feb 26 – Mar 2

Last week was Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week, an “annual celebration of the important doctrines of fair use and fair dealing. It is designed to highlight and promote the opportunities presented by fair use and fair dealing, celebrate successful stories, and explain these doctrines.” Fair Use/Fair Dealing week is coordinated by the Association of Research Libraries. See numerous article and events at http://fairuseweek.org/

  • EILF’s Review of ‘Fairness’ in Partner Countries’ Copyright Laws

[Teresa Hackett] In celebration of Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week, EIFL has surveyed copyright laws in partner countries that reflect the concept of ‘fairness’ in the use of copyright protected material. Language on the fairness of permitted uses for purposes such as education, research, criticism or review can be found in the laws of over half of EIFL’s partner countries across 19 countries in Africa, Europe and Asia-Pacific, highlighting the important role of equity in access to information. Click here for more.

  • Debunking the Fair Use vs. Fair Dealing Myth: Have We Had Fair Use All Along?

[Ariel Katz] According to conventional wisdom, a fundamental difference exists between the American fair use doctrine and the Canadian (or Commonwealth) fair dealing doctrine: while American fair use can apply potentially to any purpose, Canadian fair dealing could only apply to those purposes enumerated in the statute. Accordingly, fair dealing cannot apply to dealings for other purposes even if they would otherwise be fair. This conventional wisdom is false. Click here for more.

  • The Second Circuit’s Fair and Balanced Fair Use Decision in Fox News v. TVEyes

[Jonathan Band] This week is Fair Use Week, so at first blush, the Second Circuit’s decision that TVEyes’s service was not a fair use might appear ironic. However, a closer read reveals that the decision does not in any way undermine the Second Circuit’s recent fair use jurisprudence. As DisCo has previously covered, TVEyes continuously records the audiovisual content of more than 1,400 television and radio channels, imports that content into a database, and enables its clients to view, archive, download, and email to others ten‐minute clips. Fox News sued TVEyes for copyright infringement. In 2014, the district court granted summary judgment to TVEyes. Fox appealed, and now the Second Circuit has reversed the decision below. Click here for more.

  • See also: Krista Cox’s interview of Peter Jaszi in Above the Law. Link

Intellectual Property Use in Middle Income Countries: The Case of Chile

[Carsten Fink, Bronwyn Hall and Christian Helmers] Abstract: We analyze the use of intellectual property (IP) by firms in Chile over the decade 1995-2005 as the then middle-income country experienced rapid economic growth of 4.7 percent per year. …We find that sales growth prompts first-time use of patents and trademarks, though such use does not change the growth trajectory of firms nor does it improve their total factor productivity. We also find that trademark use is associated with new-to-the-world product innovation, which suggests that branding may be an important mechanism to appropriate returns to innovation in a middle-income country like Chile. Click here for more.

Address on Copyright Limitations at the 2018 JET Law Symposium

[Sean Flynn] The Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law and Professor Daniel Gervais hosted the 2018 Symposium titled JETLaw Symposium, Dramatic Changes: The Effect of International Trade on Intellectual Property and Human Rights on Thursday, January 25, 2018 at Vanderbilt Law School. The Symposium featured three panels of scholars discussing issues related to the intersection of these three topics. Click here for the video of my talk.