Globalizing Fair Use: Exploring the Diffusion of General, Open and Flexible Exceptions in Copyright Law

[PIJIP] PIJIP and the American University International Law Review (“AUILR”) invite submissions for a symposium exploring new directions in domestic and international copyright law promoting adoption of “fair use” rights. For these purposes, “fair use” refers to copyright exceptions that are 1) General: A general exception applies a single test to multiple categories of use, 2) Open: An open exception can be applied to uses for potentially any purpose, use or work, and 3) Flexible: A flexible exception is one applied through a proportionality test balancing the interests of rights holders with those of users, third parties and society at large. … This symposium seeks contributions to inform policy makers on the merits of promoting general, open and flexible exceptions into national and international law, including for civil as well as common law systems, and including for developing as well as advanced industrialized countries. Click here for more.

Sign-On Letter to Members of the European Parliament: We Need A Better Copyright Reform for Education      

[Sign-on letter circulated by the Communia Association. Click here to sign by February 6.]Quality and inclusive education is the cornerstone of securing Europe’s future. We, advocates of quality education in Europe, are contacting you because we are concerned thatthe language of the new education exception proposed in the directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market will alienate institutions, organisations and individuals that provide non-formal or formal education across Europe. Click here for more.

The Medicines Patent Pool Announces First License for Tuberculosis Treatment

[MPP Press Release] The Medicines Patent Pool today announced that it has signed a licence with Johns Hopkins University to facilitate the clinical development of tuberculosis (TB) drug candidate sutezolid. The antibiotic sutezolid has long been considered a promising investigational treatment that, if further developed in combination with other drugs, could be used to more effectively treat both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB in patients. Click here for more.

Intellectual Property Law and the Promotion of Welfare

[Christopher Buccafusco and Jonathan S. Masur] Abstract: The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power “to Promote the Progress of Science and the Useful Arts” by granting copyrights and patents to authors and inventors. Most courts and scholars understand this language to entail a utilitarian or consequentialist approach to intellectual property (IP) law. Unlike IP systems in other parts of the world, U.S. IP law generally eschews so-called “moral” or deontological considerations such as justice and fairness. Yet while there is considerable consensus regarding U.S. IP law’s philosophical orientation, there has been little discussion of its deeper normative goals. Most courts and scholars agree with the idea that IP law should provide incentives to creators, but there has been almost no analysis of why creativity and innovation are good. What, exactly, are the interests that IP law should promote? Click here for more.

The U.S. ‘Six Strikes’ Anti-Piracy Scheme is Dead

[Ernesto] The “six-strikes” Copyright Alert System is no more. In a brief announcement, MPAA, RIAA, and several major US ISPs said that the effort to educate online pirates has stopped. It’s unclear why the parties ended their voluntary agreement, but the lack of progress reports in recent years indicates that it wasn’t as successful as they had hoped. Click here for more.

End Patent and Copyright Requirements in NAFTA

[Dean Baker] …The renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement allows the United States, Canada and Mexico to get rid of rules that have no place in trade deals. …The other non-trade elements that should be removed from Nafta are the provisions requiring strong patent and copyright protection. These are forms of protectionism – the opposite of free trade – that can raise the price of the protected items by a factor of 10 or even 100. The impact of these protections is especially pernicious in the case of prescription drugs. Click here for more in the New York Times.