Author: InfoJustice Eds.

Article 17 Stakeholder Dialogue (Day 1): Same Old, Same Old

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 28, 2019 | Limitations and Exceptions, Regional Fora

[Communia Association] Article 17(10) of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market directive requires the Commission to “organise stakeholder dialogues to discuss best practices for cooperation between online content-sharing service providers and rightholders”. Last week Tuesday we took part in the first meeting of the stakeholder dialogue. The dialogue (which will consist of a series of meetings) is supposed to provide the Commission with input for producing guidelines can “balance fundamental rights and the use of exceptions and limitations” with the upload filtering obligations introduced by Article 17 of the directive.

Uganda Tells ARIPO: No More Patents for Pharmaceuticals

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 23, 2019 | Domestic Policies, IP and Human Rights

[Ellen ‘t Hoen] Uganda has notified the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) that pharmaceutical inventions are not eligible for patentability in the country, Managing IP reported. With this notification, Uganda is exercising one of the TRIPS flexibilities specific for least developed country members of the World Trade Organization that allows them not to grant or enforce pharmaceutical patents and protection of undisclosed data.

Civil Society Letter to WIPO Delegates Attending the 39th SCCR

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 21, 2019 | Limitations and Exceptions, Multilateral Fora, User Rights Network

[Letter endorsed by 10 civil society groups] We are shocked by the attached proposal of the Chair to change the title of the agenda items on limitations and exceptions and prioritize discussions of the “role of licensing, contractual-based solutions, etc.” We are also troubled by the measures that will have the effect of reducing action on limitations and exceptions to “capacity building” and “tool kits.”

Civil Society Groups Criticize WIPO Broadcast Treaty Limitations and Exceptions

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 15, 2019 | Multilateral Fora

[Memorandum Endorsed by Seven Civil Society Groups] A broad collection of civil society organizations, including the representatives of thousands of libraries and over 30 million teachers, sent a letter to country delegates of the World Intellectual Property Organization criticizing the draft Broadcasting Treaty being considered by member states next week. At issue is the draft treaty’s limitations and exceptions clause, which the organizations argue “would fail to ensure all uses allowed by copyright” and would “add new international law restrictions on the adoption of limitations and exceptions for parties to the Rome Convention.”

R&D Costs and Pricing of Medicines and Health Technologies

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 14, 2019 | IP and Human Rights, Multilateral Fora

[Kanaga Raja] The current model of medical innovation is ill-equipped to respond to the increasing emergence of infectious diseases amongst others, South Africa has underscored, in calling on WTO members to share their experiences of how TRIPS flexibilities have been used to address high prices and barriers on access to medical technologies and medicines.

The Right to Read

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 14, 2019 | Domestic Legislation, IP and Human Rights, Limitations and Exceptions

[Linda Daniels] The Copyright Amendment Bill gives those with disabilities greater access to copyrighted material while supporting education and creators. But it is yet to be signed into law and not everyone is behind it.

Patent Inventorship and Ownership Issues on Inventions Developed by Humans Using Artificial Intelligence

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 11, 2019 | Academic Resources

[Pratap Devarapalli] Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is immensely capable of questioning this human ‘self-awareness’ by replicating the human potential to think, sense and also to make decisions in any knowledge field. Advanced research in AI has identified increasingly diverse applications of AI all over the globe. One of the crucial aspects of these AI programs is; even though the instructions have been given by the programmers, the final creative output is sometimes generated by intelligent machines by taking decisions by themselves based on the dense neural networks. In view of the above, some argue that the inventorship rights for such inventions should be owned by intelligent machines. Nevertheless, researchers and legal experts suggest that the inventions developed by machines will always need human intervention and creative input.

Article 17 Stakeholder Dialogue: We’ll Continue to Advocate for Safeguarding User Rights

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 8, 2019 | Limitations and Exceptions, Regional Fora

[Paul Keller] Article 17(10) of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market directive requires the Commission to “organise stakeholder dialogues to discuss best practices for cooperation between online content-sharing service providers and rightholders”. Based on the outcome of these dialogues with “content-sharing service providers, rightholders, users’ organisations and other relevant stakeholders” the Commission is expected to “issue guidance on the application of Article 17” that is supposed to “balance fundamental rights and the use of exceptions and limitations” with the upload filtering obligations introduced by Article 17.

SPARC Releases Connect OER Annual Report for 2018-2019

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 30, 2019 | Academic Resources, News

[Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition] SPARC is pleased to release our 2018-2019 Connect OER Annual Report, which offers insights about OER activities across North America. This year’s report examines the current state of OER activities featuring data from 132 institutions in the U.S. and Canada. Our intent is that these insights will help inform SPARC members, open education advocates, and the library community about current trends, best practices, and the collective impact being achieved through OER at participating institutions.

Statement by Dr. Carlos Correa to the U.N. High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 30, 2019 | IP and Human Rights, Multilateral Fora

As noted by the WHO, spending on pharmaceuticals represents “15 to 30% of health spending in transitional economies and 25 to 66% in developing countries. In most low income countries pharmaceuticals are the largest public expenditure on health after personnel costs and the largest household health expenditure.” It is indispensable, therefore, to implement policies that promote competitive markets for pharmaceuticals, particularly in the area of procurement, regulatory approvals (including biologicals) and intellectual property.

The Right to Authorship

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 26, 2019 | Limitations and Exceptions, User Rights Network

[Yamile Socolovsky] Education International’s decision to encourage discussion of an International Treaty concerning the exceptions and limitations to copyright for educational and research activities is both timely and necessary. The obstacles imposed on these activities by the excessively restrictive regulations in this area become remarkably difficult to overcome in the current context, because one aspect of the commercialisation of education and research involves the commercialisation of intellectual and artistic production, which represents a source of profit for an increasingly concentrated business sector.

New York Public Library Project Reveals Nearly 75% of Books from 1924-1964 Are Likely in the Public Domain

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 17, 2019 | Blog

Author’s Alliance, Link (CC-BY) Earlier this year, the New York Public Library (NYPL) announced preliminary results from an analysis of copyright registration and renewal data recorded with the U.S. Copyright Office from...

Copyright Issues and Teachers’ Dilemma in Asia Pacific

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 12, 2019 | Limitations and Exceptions, Multilateral Fora, Regional Fora, User Rights Network

[Robert Jeyakumar] … The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Asia-Pacific Regional Seminar was held in Singapore on the 28th to 30th April 2019. I took part in the event as a member of the EI delegation to express our teacher concerns on copyright issues. Among the objectives of this seminar was to gather views from teacher unions on copyright exceptions for education.

Time to Act: International Action Needed on Exceptions and Limitations to Copyright for Libraries

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 6, 2019 | Limitations and Exceptions, Multilateral Fora, User Rights Network

[International Federation of Library Associations)] After years of IFLA engagement at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), discussions have reached a key moment. In three regional seminars, many countries asked for international action – a key priority for IFLA. A global conference will take place in October 2019 to make decisions on the way forward.

Shamnad Basheer IP/Trade Fellowship with Texas A&M University School of Law

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Aug 26, 2019 | Special 301

[Srividhya Ragavan] In memory of Shamnad Basheer the founder of SpicyIP and IDIA, the Association for Accessible Medicines in collaboration with the Texas A&M University School of Law invites applications for the Shamnad Basheer IP/Trade Fellowship with Texas A&M University School of Law. The fellow will work closely with Professor Srividhya Ragavan of Texas A&M University School of Law and Jonathan Kimball of the Association for Accessible Medicines to produce a white paper that examines the Special 301 submissions of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). The fellow will evaluate the submissions’ role and impact on USTR policymaking and their consistency with the approach to intellectual property protection and enforcement outlined in the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (Trade Promotion Authority) and the May 10 Agreement concerning international trade negotiations and access to healthcare and pharmaceutical innovation.

Finally! The Text of Poland’s Legal Challenge of Copyright Directive Was Published

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Aug 21, 2019 | Regional Fora

[Natalia Mileszyk] Earlier this year, Poland initiated a legal challenge against Article 17 of the Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) [C-401/19]. The CJEU has finally published the application for this legal challenge… In our opinion, referring the Directive to the Court of Justice is a good step that can help clear controversies concerning Article 17. An independent court will assess issues that in the policy debate are usually dismissed by representatives of rightsholders as fear-mongering or disinformation.

Decolonising Copyright: Building Our Creative and Information Economy

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Aug 16, 2019 | Domestic Legislation, Fair Use, Limitations and Exceptions, User Rights Network

[AfroChic] On the 7th of August 2019 RecreateSA convened a seminar in association with the South African Guild of Actors, the University of the Witwatersrand’s Library, Blind SA, the University of Cape Town’s IP Unit, the South African Democratic Teacher’s Union, Washington College of Law’s Programme on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and the University of the Witwatersrand’s Institute for Social and Economic Research. The seminar was entitled “Decolonising Copyright: Building our Creative and Information Economy” and took place in the Senate Room of the Solomon Mahlangu Building.

SPARC Urges Department of Justice to Block Merger Between Cengage and McGraw-Hill

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Aug 14, 2019 | Domestic Policies

[SPARC press release] Today, SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) submitted a detailed filing to the U.S. Department of Justice urging federal antitrust enforcers to block the proposed merger between college textbook publishing giants Cengage and McGraw-Hill Education. The merger would create the largest publisher of college course materials in the United States and the world’s second largest education publisher overall.

Educators’ Unions in Australia and the EU Call for Education to Be Carved Out of Trade Negotiations

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Aug 7, 2019 | Blog

During the Education International (EI) 8th World Congress, affiliated educators’ unions in Australia and the European Union issued a statement calling for the Australian government and the European Commission to be more transparent in ongoing negotiations on the potential free trade agreement and to explicitly carve out education from the negotiations.

Decolonising Copyright, Building our Creative & Information Economy

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jul 29, 2019 | Events, Fair Use, Limitations and Exceptions, User Rights Network

Recreate ZA, in partnership with Wits Library, Wiser, UCT IP Unit and the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property will be hosting a series of panel discussions on the 7th and 8th of August, at Wits and UCT respectivel… At this event, a number of development scholars and experts, including Ruth Okediji, Adam Habib, Justice Zak Yacoob, Tshilidzi Marwala and many others will be engaging on how the signing and implementation Copyright Amendment Bill could positively affect the economy, and how it could lead to growth emanating from South Africa’s creative, research and education sectors, as well as reductions in costs for students and learning institutions.

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Author: InfoJustice Eds.

Article 17 Stakeholder Dialogue (Day 1): Same Old, Same Old

Uganda Tells ARIPO: No More Patents for Pharmaceuticals

Civil Society Letter to WIPO Delegates Attending the 39th SCCR

Civil Society Groups Criticize WIPO Broadcast Treaty Limitations and Exceptions

R&D Costs and Pricing of Medicines and Health Technologies

The Right to Read

Patent Inventorship and Ownership Issues on Inventions Developed by Humans Using Artificial Intelligence

Article 17 Stakeholder Dialogue: We’ll Continue to Advocate for Safeguarding User Rights

SPARC Releases Connect OER Annual Report for 2018-2019

Statement by Dr. Carlos Correa to the U.N. High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage

The Right to Authorship

New York Public Library Project Reveals Nearly 75% of Books from 1924-1964 Are Likely in the Public Domain

Copyright Issues and Teachers’ Dilemma in Asia Pacific

Time to Act: International Action Needed on Exceptions and Limitations to Copyright for Libraries

Shamnad Basheer IP/Trade Fellowship with Texas A&M University School of Law

Finally! The Text of Poland’s Legal Challenge of Copyright Directive Was Published

Decolonising Copyright: Building Our Creative and Information Economy

SPARC Urges Department of Justice to Block Merger Between Cengage and McGraw-Hill

Educators’ Unions in Australia and the EU Call for Education to Be Carved Out of Trade Negotiations

Decolonising Copyright, Building our Creative & Information Economy

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PIJIP

Infojustice Roundup

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