January 13-17: Copyright Week
[Parker Higgins and Corynne McSherry] In the week leading up the two-year anniversary of the SOPA blackout protests, EFF and others are talking about key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day, we’ll take on a different piece, exploring what’s at stake and what we need to do to make sure the law promotes creativity and innovation. Click here for more.
Data Sharing in a Humanitarian Organization: The Experience of Médecins Sans Frontières
[Unni Karunakara] Open data and data sharing are essential for maximizing the benefits that can be obtained from institutional and research datasets. In 2012, the medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) decided to adopt a data sharing policy for routinely collected clinical and research data (http://www.msf.org.uk/msf-data-sharing). Here we describe the policy’s principles, practicalities, and development process. We hope this paper will encourage and help other humanitarian and nongovernmental organizations to share their data with public health researchers for the benefit of the populations with which they work. Click here for more.
Policy Projects at CC: Open Policy Network and Institute for Open Leadership
[Timothy Vollmer] Over the last several years, Creative Commons and related organizations have been contacted by multiple institutions and governments seeking assistance on how to implement open licensing and develop materials and strategies for open policies. By “open policies” we mean policies whereby publicly funded resources are developed and released as openly licensed resources. The $2 billion Department of Labor TAACCCT grant program would be considered an open policy. There is a pressing need to provide support to policymakers so they can successfully create, adopt, and implement open policies. And CC affiliates from around the world have asked for an informational hub where open policies could be shared and discussed. Click here for more.
Senators Baucus and Hatch Introduce Trade Promotion Authority Legislation
Leadership in the House and Senate have introduced Trade Promotion Authority legislation, formally titled the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act of 2014. The legislation grants the executive branch the authority to negotiate trade agreements that can be voted up or down – but not amended – by the legislature. It also sets rules concerning consultations between the branches, and sets formal negotiating objectives. For more information, see the full text of the bill, as well as statements from: Senate Finance Committee | Representative Levin |Profs. Sean Flynn, David Levine, and Margot Kaminski | James Love, KEI | Public Citizen | Citizens’ Trade Campaign.
Why is Google Supporting Big Pharma?
[Gabriel Levitt]Google’s founding and funding of the Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP)[1] should greatly concern consumers and health care providers, as well as the community of activists, academics and NGOs that focus on access to affordable medicines, intellectual property, and Internet freedom. CSIP’s activities compromise the very soul of search, the essence of the Internet as a tool for information justice, and public health. Other companies also fund CSIP, but as the leading search company, putative champion of Internet freedom, and because of its unique history of associations with online pharmacies, Google is the focus of this article. Click here for more.
Copyright and Access to Culture in the Digital Environment
[Allan Rocha de Souza] The fifteenth century houses important both social and technological transformations, which mark the emergence of a new modern era, with remarkable ruptures with the previous period. The creation of Universities and their independence towards Church, in the late Middle Ages, had already resulted on literacy increase and, as a result, also on a book demand, which led to the expansion of scribes’ work field. The later invention of the printing, by Gutenberg, in 1436, and the paper, in 1440, allowed the reproduction of books in a scale infinitely superior in comparison with the known scale then. Click here for more.
Viewing Pirated Streams is Not Illegal, German Government Says
[Andy, TorrentFreak] The controversial RedTube case in Germany has provoked an interesting response from the Ministry of Justice. Although it says the question will ultimately be answered by the European Court, the Ministry says that it believes the mere viewing of copyright infringing streams is not illegal under current law. Click here for more.
Día del Dominio Público: La Fiesta Que el TPP Quiere Suprimir
[J. Carlos Lara] Los plazos de protección de derechos de autor han aumentado sin parar desde hace décadas, sin resistencia efectiva al momento de convertirse en ley. Hoy, el TPP intenta extenderlos aún más, sin evidencia de su necesidad e impidiendo cualquier reforma futura a los derechos de autor. Más información.
