InfoJustice Eds.

Over 100 civil society organisations call on the European Parliament to support COVID-19 WTO waiver proposal

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Nov 19, 2020 | Coronavirus, Limitations and Exceptions, Multilateral Fora

[Médecins Sans Frontières] On 19 November 2020, more than 100 civil society organisations, including MSF Access Campaign, sent an open letter to European Parliament calling for support for India, South Africa, Eswatini and Kenya´s landmark proposal for a temporary waiver from certain intellectual property (IP) provisions under the Agreements on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for COVID-19 medical technologies.

Open Education and Artificial Scarcity in Hard Times

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 23, 2020 | Blog

[Rory Mir] The sudden move to remote education by universities this year has forced the inevitable: the move to an online education. While most universities won’t be fully remote, having course materials online was already becoming the norm before the COVID-19 pandemic, and this year it has become mandatory for millions of educators and students. As academia recovers from this crisis, and hopefully prepares for the next one, the choices we make will send us down one of two paths. We can move towards a future of online education which replicates the artificial scarcity of traditional publishing, or take a path which fosters an abundance of free materials by embracing the principles of open access and open education.

Access to medical supplies and devices — the lesser known story of COVID-19 and medical monopoly

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 19, 2020 | Access to Medicine, Coronavirus

[Salimah Valiani] Discussions around access to potential vaccines for COVID-19 are widespread, particularly in the global South. Much less discussed is the lack of access to already existing medical technology crucial to stemming the spread of the novel coronavirus and assisting its most severely affected victims. The latter is the outcome of the monopoly control of medical technology — a phenomenon stretching at least as long as the monopoly of Big PHARMA — though much less understood.

UNAIDS supports a temporary WTO waiver from certain obligations of the TRIPS Agreement in relation to the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 16, 2020 | Access to Medicine, Coronavirus, Multilateral Fora, News

[UNAIDS Press Statement] Today, the World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council meets to consider a proposal presented by the Governments of South Africa and India for a temporary waiver of certain TRIPS obligations in order to facilitate an appropriate response to COVID-19. The aim is to create certainty and clarity, guaranteeing freedom to operate, innovate, procure and scale up manufacturing capacities in essential health technologies at the required scale. The waiver would reduce transaction costs and eliminate key barriers across the research and development cycle and the supply chain for the access and delivery of health technologies to prevent, diagnose and treat COVID-19.

Civil Society ORganizations call for strong support for TRIPS waiver to combat COVID-19

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 16, 2020 | Access to Medicine, Coronavirus

[Kanaga Raja] Nearly 380 civil society organizations have urged Members of the World Trade Organization to strongly support the adoption of a draft decision proposed by India and South Africa for a waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement to combat the worsening COVID-19 pandemic. India and South Africa have submitted a proposal (IP/C/W/669) to the WTO TRIPS Council on a “Waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19”.

Education Groups Drop Their Lawsuit Against Public.Resource.Org, Give Up Their Quest to Paywall the Law

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 15, 2020 | News

[Mitch Stoltz] This week, open and equitable access to the law got a bit closer. For many years, EFF, along with co-counsel at Fenwick & West and attorney David Halperin, has defended Public.Resource.Org in its quest to improve public access to the law — including standards, like the National Electrical Code, that legislators and agencies have made into binding regulations. In two companion lawsuits, six standards development organizations sued Public Resource in 2013 for posting standards online. They accused Public Resource of copyright infringement and demanded the right to keep the law behind paywalls.

Taming the upload filters: Pre-flagging vs. match and flag

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 15, 2020 | Domestic Legislation, Regional Fora

[Paul Keller] One of the most important elements of any implementation of Article 17 will be how platforms can reconcile the use of automated content filtering with the requirement not to prevent the availability of legitimate uploads. While most implementation proposals that we have seen so far are silent on this crucial question, both the German discussion proposal and the Commission’s consultation proposal contain specific mechanisms that are intended to ensure that automated content filters do not block legitimate uploads, and that uploads are subject to human review if they are not obviously/likely infringing.

Letter to President Ramaphosa on the Proposed Covid-19 Waiver, by 43 South Africa and India at the WTO, From South Africa-Affiliated Academics, Researchers and Teachers

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 12, 2020 | Access to Medicine, Coronavirus, Multilateral Fora

South Africa, along with India, has adopted a ground-breaking position at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) with the tabling of the proposal for a “Waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19”. The proposal will be on the agenda of the WTO TRIPS Council on 15-16 October 2020. As a group of academics, researchers and teachers affiliated to various South African institutions, we declare our strong support for this proposal.

Implementation update: French Parliament gives carte blanche, while the Netherlands correct course

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 10, 2020 | Regional Fora, User Rights Network

[Communia Association] Back in January of this year, we noted how both the Netherlands and France (at that point the only Member States that had presented proposals to implement Article 17) had proposed selective implementations of Article 17 that ignored crucial user rights safeguards. A lot has happened since January, but yesterday both Member States took further steps in their national implementations. And this time the two Member States are moving in opposite directions: While the Dutch government has reacted to criticism from civil society and members of Parliament by fixing some of the most obvious shortcomings of its implementation law, the 2nd chamber of the French Parliament has adopted a law that gives the French government the power to implement Article 17 (and the rest of the provisions of the DSM directive) however it sees fit.

Action at the WTO is needed to accelerate research, development, manufacturing and supply of medical products to combat Covid-19: Proposal from India and South Africa

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 7, 2020 | Coronavirus, Multilateral Fora

[Viviana Munoz Tellez] India and South Africa are calling for the WTO Members to agree to waive some of the obligations on protection and enforcement of patents and other intellectual property rights during the Covid-19 pandemic. The South Centre encourages all WTO Members to support the proposal in the upcoming TRIPS Council meeting on 10-11 October 2020 to forward a request to the General Council for the adoption of the decision text.

The TRIPS Council on 15-16 October should agree to extend the transition period that exempts Least Developed Countries from implementation of the WTO TRIPS Agreement

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 7, 2020 | Multilateral Fora

[Nirmalya Syam] The least developed country (LDC) members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have submitted a request to the upcoming session of the TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Council for an extension of the transition period available to LDC members under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement, for as long as they remain LDCs, and for an additional period of 12 years following their official graduation from the LDC category as determined by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.

Implementing the Marrakesh Treaty in Latin America: A Look at the Experiences of Four CC Community Members

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 2, 2020 | Limitations and Exceptions, Multilateral Fora

[Brigitte Vézina and Scann] Four years ago today, the Marrakesh Treaty entered into force. The Treaty is truly special in the international copyright law universe: it has a clear humanitarian and social development dimension and it’s the first international treaty that focuses on the beneficiaries of limitations and exceptions, rather than on the rights of creators or holders of related rights. Adopted at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2013, the Marrakesh Treaty’s main goal is to create a set of mandatory limitations and exceptions for the benefit of the blind, visually impaired, and otherwise print disabled (VIPs). The Marrakesh Treaty is a huge step forward for VIPs around the world, as it facilitates access to works in adapted versions. However, making sure the treaty works on the ground in each country or institution is not necessarily plain sailing.

EIFL-KLISC Fact Sheet on US-Kenya Trade Talks

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 29, 2020 | Trade Agreements, User Rights Network

[Electronic Information for Libraries] EIFL and our partner library consortium in Kenya, the Kenya Libraries and Information Services Consortium (KLISC), have issued a fact sheet on the proposed US-Kenya Free Trade Agreement (FTA), a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement that aims to strengthen economic ties between the US and Kenya… At least 20 priority areas for negotiation have been identified, including intellectual property (IP). However, any requirement to apply a standard of IP protection similar to that found in US law to Kenya, as a developing country, raises significant concerns among libraries and other civil society stakeholders.

Is the right to exclusivity a Hamlet question?

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 29, 2020 | Access to Medicine, Coronavirus

[Justice Prabha Sridevan] Today the judicial authority may be faced with balancing patent rights and patients’ rights or right to life. It shall use all the tools at its command and innovate if necessary, but shall rule in favour of life.

Civil Society letter on the Article 17 implementation guidance

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 14, 2020 | Regional Fora, User Rights Network

Earlier today 27 (update 16-09-2020: 30) civil society organisations sent a joint letter to Commissioner Breton summarising our responses to the Article 17 guidance consultation that closed last week… The letter expresses concerns that the proposed Article 17 guidance endorses the use of automated content blocking by online services even though it is clear that this will lead to the violation of fundamental rights. It also warns that implementations of Article 17 based on the proposed guidance will violate established principles of EU law.

Global Congress: Week on Intellectual Property, Public Interest and COVID-19 – Apply Now!

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 8, 2020 | Events

For all those interested who were waiting for the development of the Global Congress in 2020, we inform you that the event and in its full version, has been postponed to the year 2021. However, we invite you to participate in the activities that we will be organizing for this 2020 to be realized between the 5th and the 9th of October 2020, in order to have a virtual meeting space for the discussion of these topics that have shown their relevance in the framework of the global pandemic.

Commission consultation on Article 17 guidance: User rights must be protected at upload

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 7, 2020 | Limitations and Exceptions, Regional Fora, User Rights Network

[Paul Keller] At the end of July the Commission published a long awaited “targeted consultation addressed to the participants to the stakeholder dialogue on Article 17 of the CDSM Directive“. With this consultation the Commission makes good on its (pre-covid) promise to “share initial views on the content of the Article 17 guidance” with the participants of the stakeholder dialogue. Nestled in-between 18 questions, the consultation document provides a detailed outline of what the Commission’s guidance could look like once it is finalised. While we have been rather sceptical after the end of the six meetings of the stakeholder dialogue meetings, we are pleased to see that the initial views shared by the Commission express a genuine attempt to find a balance between the protection of user rights and the interests of creators and other rightholders, which reflects the complex balance of the provisions introduced by Article 17 after a long legislative fight.

Creative Commons Is Now Leading the Open COVID Pledge—Here’s What That Means

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Aug 28, 2020 | Coronavirus, News

[Diane Peters and Eric Steuer] We’re pleased to announce today that Creative Commons is taking on leadership and stewardship of the Open COVID Pledge. Earlier this year, CC joined forces with an international group of researchers, scientists, academics, and lawyers seeking to accelerate the development of diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, medical equipment, and software solutions that might be used to assist in the fight against COVID-19. The result was the Open COVID Pledge, a project that offers a simple way for universities, companies, and others to make their patents and copyrights available to the public to be utilized in the current public health crisis. Users of Creative Commons licenses will be familiar with the Open COVID Pledge’s approach. Like CC licenses, the Open COVID Pledge offers free, standard, public licenses that anyone can use to remove unnecessary obstacles to the dissemination of knowledge.

An Open Letter to the Government of South Africa on the Need to Protect Human Rights in Copyright

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Aug 22, 2020 | Bilateral Trade Pressures, Domestic Legislation, Limitations and Exceptions

[Cory Doctorow] Five years ago, South Africa embarked upon a long-overdue overhaul of its copyright system, and, as part of that process, the country incorporated some of the best elements of both U.S. and European copyright. From the U.S.A., South Africa imported the flexible idea of fair use — a set of tests for when it’s okay to use others’ copyrighted work without permission. From the E.U., South Africa imported the idea of specific, enumerated exemptions for libraries, galleries, archives, museums, and researchers. Both systems are important for preserving core human rights, including free expression, privacy, education, and access to knowledge; as well as important cultural and economic priorities such as the ability to build U.S.- and European-style industries that rely on flexibilities in copyright.

Uneducating Copyright – Member States Can Choose Between ‘Full Legal Certainty’ and Patchworked Licensing Schemes for Digital and Cross-Border Teaching Activities

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Aug 19, 2020 | Academic Resources, Limitations and Exceptions, Regional Fora

Author: Bernd Justin Jütte Abstract: The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market supplements the existing exception for teaching of the Information Society Directive. The new exception focuses on digital and...

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