InfoJustice Eds.

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.

Global Innovation Index 2019: India Makes Major Gains as Switzerland, Sweden, US, Netherlands, U.K. Top Ranking; Trade Protectionism Poses Risks for Future Innovation

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jul 24, 2019 | Empirical Research

[World Intellectual Property Organization] Now in its 12th edition, the GII is a global benchmark that helps policy makers better understand how to stimulate and measure innovative activity, a main driver of economic and social development. The GII 2019 ranks 129 economies based on 80 indicators, from traditional measurements like research and development investments and international patent and trademark applications to newer indicators including mobile-phone app creation and high-tech exports.

UN Human Rights Council: Access to Medicines Fundamental to Enjoyment of Health

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jul 16, 2019 | Multilateral Fora

Access to medicines and vaccines is one of the fundamental elements for the full realization of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and the correspondent objectives of universal health coverage and health for all without discrimination, with special attention to reaching those furthest behind first

Liability for User-Generated Content Online: Principles for Lawmakers

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jul 12, 2019 | Domestic Policies

[Joint statement endorsed by 28 civil society groups and 53 individuals] Policymakers have expressed concern about both harmful online speech and the content moderation practices of tech companies. Section 230, enacted as part of the bipartisan Communications Decency Act of 1996, says that Internet services, or “intermediaries,” are not liable for illegal third-party content except with respect to intellectual property, federal criminal prosecutions, communications privacy (ECPA), and sex trafficking (FOSTA). Of course, Internet services remain responsible for content they themselves create.

Letter from 104 Members of Congress to USTR, re: Data Protection for Biologics in NAFTA 2.0

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jul 12, 2019 | NAFTA

We write to express our strong opposition to provisions that limit access to medicines in the revised NAFTA agreement, also known as United States-Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA)…. The USMCA would keep drug prices out of reach for patients by increasing and locking in 10 years of marketing exclusivity for brand biologics, expanding the scope of brand biologics eligible for protection, and making it easier for brand-name drug companies to extend their monopolies through additional patents, patent extensions and other forms of patent “evergreening.”

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