Conference to Explore Law and Economics of Copyright Users’ Rights
[Sean Flynn] Economists and legal experts will join in a public discussion of the social and economic benefits of copyright users’ rights on September 26 from 2pm at American University Washington College of Law. The event will bring together top scholars in economics and law to discuss needs for empirical research on copyright users’ rights to inform law reform processes around the world. Click here for more.
Access to Culture and Copyright in Uruguay: #noal218, a Civil Society Victory
[Jorge Gemetto] In early July, the Uruguayan government had included an article in the Accountability Bill (one omnibus bill that mostly deals with administrative issues), which extended the term of copyright from 50 to 70 years after the author’s death. Article 218 (that was its number in the bill) was included at the request of the Uruguayan Chamber of the Record Industry (CUD, in Spanish) in coordination with Uruguay’s General Association of Authors (AGADU, in Spanish), entities that historically led the copyright law reform, succeeding in imposing growing restrictions. This time, for the first time, they received a political setback, due to strong opposition from many sectors. Click here for more.
Solving the Orphan Works Problem for the United States
[David Hansen, Kathryn Hashimoto, Gwen Hinze, Pamela Samuelson and Jennifer Urban] Abstract: Over the last decade, the problem of orphan works — i.e., copyrighted works whose owners cannot be located by a reasonably diligent search — has come sharply into focus as libraries, archives, and other large repositories of copyrighted works have sought to digitize and make available their collections online. Although this problem is certainly not limited to digital libraries, it has proven especially challenging for these organizations because they hold diverse collections that include millions of books, articles, letters, photographs, home movies, films, and other types of works. Click here for more.
EU-Thailand Free Trade Agreement: Not at the expense of access to medicines
[Act Up-Paris, Oxfam International, Health Action International, & Action against AIDS Germany] Following the official launch of the negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EU and the Kingdom of Thailand in March 2013, Thai officials and EU negotiators are meeting this week (16-20 September) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to conduct a second round of negotiation of a trade agreement that both parties want to achieve in as little as 18 months. This week, around 5,000 health, consumer, and farming activists from various Thai civil society networks are taking part in a campaign to defend access to public goods under this FTA. They are organizing a wide range of activities such as demonstrations, press conference and meeting with the EU delegation. Click here for more.
Threat of Pharmaceutical-Related IP Investment Rights in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: An Eli Lilly v. Canada Case Study
[Brook Baker] After losing two patent cases before the appellate courts of a Western democracy, should a disgruntled foreign multinational pharmaceutical company be free take that country to private arbitration claiming that its expectations of monopoly profits had been thwarted by the courts’ decisions? Should governments continue to negotiate trade agreements where expansive Intellectual Property-related investor rights and investor- state dispute settlement (ISDS) are enshrined into hard law? Click here for more.
