Colombian Biology Student Facing Criminal Charges, Possible Jail Time, for Sharing Another’s Thesis Without Authorization
[Carolina Botero] I would like to draw your attention to a copyright case in Colombia in which biology student Diego Gomez is facing criminal charges after sharing a Master Thesis written by another Colombian biologist (without asking for permission) in 2011 on the Internet. We believe this case is evidence of exaggerated criminal copyright laws, and also evidence of the need to rethink the way that science circulates. I can give more information to those of you that might be interested. Click here for more.
Creative Commons and CCUSA Letter to Department of Education on Open Educational Resources
Creative Commons and Creative Commons U.S.A. have sent a letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan supporting the Department of Education’s (DOE) adoption of the Hewlett Foundation’s definition of Open Educational Resources, and asking the Department to require open licenses for works funded by its grants … “We hope that the Department will consider extending the example already set by the First in the World Program and the Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant program. Both of these grant programs requires grantees to share grant-funded works under open licenses. We hope that open licensing of publicly funded educational resources will be extended across all other Department of Education programs to ensure the ability to find, access, reuse, and remix publicly-funded educational materials.” Click here for more.
See also: CCUSA comment to the Federal Communications Commission on Net Neutrality. Link.
India IP Policy Misrepresented By US Trade Representative, Indian Pharma Says
[Catherine Saez] An Indian pharmaceutical industry group has challenged the United States Trade Representative’s assessment of India’s intellectual property protection regime and suggested that India received more severe treatment than other countries solely on the basis of its treatment of patented pharmaceuticals which it says meets international obligations. In a paper issued recently, Secretary General of the Indian Pharmaceutical Association, D.G. Shah, remarked that the USTR had removed the Philippines from its 2014 Special 301 watch list, but maintained India on its priority watch list. Click here for the full story on IP Watch.
USTR Tells Press that TPP Negotiators Are Down to “A Dozen Issues,” While House Republicans Threaten to Withhold Support
Inside US Trade reports that U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told reporters Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators are “down to a dozen issues” in the intellectual property chapter. However, these are among the most difficult issues remaining. The remaining unsolved issues include intellectual property and access to medicines (which is really a set of different issues), where countries are still split on what the obligations should be for low and middle income countries. Additionally, Congressional Democrats recently met with Froman, where they produced a memo warning that the TPP doesn’t reflect the May 10th agreement on data protection, linkage, and patent term extensions in developing countries. Click here for more.
EU Commission’s Consultation Report Shows: Current Copyright is Unbalanced
[Leonhard Dobusch] This week the EU Commission published its report (PDF) on responses to the public consultation on EU copyright held earlier this year. The consultation had drawn a comparably high number of responses with a total of about 11,000 messages, not least due to initiatives such as fixcopyright.eu (targeting end users) and creatorsforeurope.eu (targeting authors and performers). While over at IPKat copyright buffs are already delving into the details of the report, I tried to have a look at the bigger picture here: what do we learn about the state of copyright at large? And what overall direction should copyright reform take? With regard to both questions the report is quite instructive because of its clear and straightforward structure. Click here for more.
Text of the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement
Readers of this blog may be interested in checking out the text of the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement, which was signed on July 8. The intellectual property chapter contains many of the copyright, trademark, and enforcement provisions under debate in the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations. It also contains provisions on plant varieties and geographical indications. (Patents are included, but are not covered as extensively as other forms of IPR). Click here for more.
