Launch of the Open Policy Network
[Timothy Vollmer] Today we’re excited to announce the launch of the Open Policy Network. The Open Policy Network, or OPN for short, is a coalition of organizations and individuals working to support the creation, adoption, and implementation of policies that require that publicly funded resources are openly licensed resources. Click here for more.
Research Funders in China Issue Open Access Policies
[Electronic Information for Libraries] The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China have both issued new open access policies which will contribute to making research more available. The announcement on the Policies on Open Access to Research Articles from Publicly Funded Research, was made on May 15, during a briefing on the coming Annual Meeting of the Global Research Council to be held in May 26-28, 2014, in Beijing, China. Click here for more.
Civil Society to the Global Fund: Abandon the Tiered-Pricing Initiative
[Brook Baker] Attached is a letter from 220 non-governmental organizations from around the globe opposing the proposed Blue-Ribbon Task Force to Develop a Global Framework on Tiered-Pricing… In this letter, we urge the Global Fund and proposed partners to: Abandon the blue-ribbon Task Force and tiered pricing initiative… Use its resources – institutional, political and technical – to play a positive role to improve affordability of medical tools… Raise the challenges of access to medicines and other medical technologies for low and middle-income countries at the upcoming May 2014 World Health Assembly, by sharing pricing information from Global Fund recipients and the difficulties the Global Fund faces in bringing the cost of medicines down and supporting civil society’s demand to further expand access to treatment through all proven interventions for all in need. Click here for more.
See also: Response by Global Fund, which includes a formal summary of the Equitable Access Initiative proposal, GF/B31/ER8 (Link)
Court of Justice of the European Union: Laws Permitting Unauthorized Downloads “Cannot Be Tolerated”
A recent judgment from the Court of Justice of the European Union (Case C-435/12 ACI Adam BV and Others) ruled that private copying limitations cannot permit downloads from unlawful sources. João Pedro Quintais & Alexander de Leeuw, have a detailed piece on the case on the Kluwer Copyright Blog. Here is an excerpt from the ruling. Click here for more.
TPP Negotiators Consider Longer IPR Implementation Periods for Developing Countries as Alternative to Differential Treatment
[Mike Palmedo] Negotiators from the 12 countries negotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership are meeting in Singapore this week… Negotiators had previously been discussing a differential treatment plan, under which the TPP countries still “developing” would have been exempt from certain obligations on patent and data protection. This plan is reportedly still on the table. Inside U.S. Trade reports that IP negotiators are also discussing a different way to provide developing countries extra flexibility, (though as of May 15, it had not been put forth in a formal proposal). The new plan would involve one set of intellectual property obligations for all TPP countries, but developing countries would be allowed a longer period of time to implement them. Click here for more.
Increasing Access to HIV Treatment in Middle-Income Countries: Key data on prices, regulatory status, tariffs and the intellectual property situation
[World Health Organization] OVERVIEW: The paper provides information on the prices paid by 20 middle-income countries for adult and pediatric formulations of antiretroviral treatments recommended by WHO. It links this information with an analysis of the intellectual property situation of the selected medicines taking into account existing license agreements as well as compulsory licenses, and includes data and general information on a number of other determinants of prices and availability of ARVs, including tariffs, markups and taxes, as well as the regulatory status. Click here for more.
We Can’t Stop Copyright Pirates Until We Understand Why They Do It
[Martin Kretschmer] There is a disturbing lack of evidence about why people choose to share copyright content online, as well as about whether the practice harms the entertainment industry and society or if it is a benefit. That is a real problem as we try to legislate in this contentious area. Click here for the full op-ed on phys.org.
