New Era for Copyright in Kyrgyzstan: Secondary School Children and People with Print Disabilities Benefit from the New Copyright Law
[Electronic Information for Libraries] In March 2017, the law on copyright and related rights of the Kyrgyz Republic was amended to include important changes for the benefit of libraries, educational institutions and persons with print disabilities. There are also new provisions safeguarding access to works created through public funds. EIFL warmly welcomes the changes that, taken together, herald a new law that is people-centred, pragmatic and puts education and development at the centre of copyright law and policy. Click here for more.
My CRTC Submission on the Bell Coalition Site Blocking Plan: Why It Is Disproportionate, Harmful, and Inconsistent with Global Standards
[Michael Geist] The CRTC’s deadline for submissions on the Bell coalition website blocking plan closed last week, with more than 10,000 people and organizations filing directly with the CRTC. The interventions including a warning from the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression that the blocking plan “raises serious inconsistencies” with Canada’s human rights obligations, fears from ISPs that the plan will increase Internet costs for consumers, expert analysis on the technical risks of site blocking, and detailed reviews of the many problems with the plan. My submission has not yet been posted online, but is available in full here. Click here for more.
China Claims U.S.’s Section 301 Investigation Into Its Tech Transfer and IP Licensing Policies May Violate WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding
[Mike Palmedo] Last week, China warned that the U.S.’s threat of unilateral sanctions under Section 301 of the Trade Act violates its WTO commitment to settle disputes within the WTO Dispute Settlement framework, and it referred to a previous case in which a panel addresses how the U.S. could use Section 301 and stay within the bounds of the WTO framework. Inside U.S. Trade reports “China cited DS152 to make the claim that unilateral trade restrictions taken by the U.S. via Section 301 would be inconsistent with WTO rules. The panel in DS152, a case brought by the European Communities that challenged as such aspects of the 301 law, determined that the statute does not breach WTO rules because the U.S. government had provided statements that it would follow WTO rules when making WTO-related determinations under the statute.” Click here for more.
This Is Not How You Make Copyright Reform! Report from the Copyright Action Days
[Communia Association] Last week more than a hundred of copyright reform activists got together in Brussels for the European Copyright Action Days to make it clear to EU lawmakers that the copyright reform effort that is currently being discussed in the European Parliament and the European Council is not good enough. In a series of events organized by Copyright 4 Creativity, Create.Refresh, Communia and others, activists and other stakeholders discussed the shortcomings of the current reform proposal as well as ideas for a more future-proof overhaul of the outdated EU copyright system. Click here for more.
‘This Video Is Unavailable’: Analyzing Copyright Takedown of User-Generated Content on YouTube
[Kris Erickson and Martin Kretschmer] This research investigates factors that motivate takedown of user-generated content by copyright owners. We study takedowns within an original dataset of 1,839 YouTube music video parodies observed between January 2012 and December 2016. We find an overall rate of takedowns within the sample of 32.9% across the 4-year period. We use a Cox proportional hazards model to investigate the factors that lead to removal of videos. The variables analysed include commercial substitution, artistic/moral concerns, cultural differences between firms and YouTube uploader practices. The main finding is that policy concerns frequently raised by rightholders are not associated with statistically significant patterns of action. Click here for more.
