U.S. Copyright Office Finds That Ancillary Copyright May Violate the Berne Quotation Right
[Jonathan Band] The U.S. Copyright Office’s recently released study Copyright Protections for Press Publishers raises serious questions about the compatibility of ancillary copyright regimes with international copyright treaty obligations. The Copyright Office conducted the study at the request of members of Congress to assess the viability of establishing ancillary copyright protections in the United States similar to protections now being implemented in Europe. Under such regimes, online news aggregators must pay for publishers for excerpts of content they provide for others to view.
Video: Responding to COVID Through Recognition of the Right to Research in Comparative Copyright
[PIJIP] On June 24, Sean Flynn presented “Responding to COVID Through Recognition of the Right to Research in Comparative Copyright” at the 40th annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP).
Compliance of National TDM Rules with International Copyright Law – An Overrated Nonissue?
[Martin Senftleben] Abstract: … lawmakers in countries seeking to devise an appropriate TDM regime may wonder whether the adoption of a restrictive approach is necessary in the light of international copyright law. In particular, they may feel obliged to ensure compliance with the three-step test laid down in Article 9(2) of the Berne Convention, Article 13 of the TRIPS Agreement and Article 10 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty. An imbalanced, restrictive interpretation of the three-step test, however, can lead to an overly cautious approach that stifles TDM and makes broad inroads into the right to research – instead of establishing a proper balance between copyright protection and the right to research that supports TDM activities. Against this background, the analysis raises the question whether international copyright law covers TDM activities at all.
SOBRE EL SCCR 42 DE LA OMPI Y LA ALIANZA DE LA SOCIEDAD CIVIL LATINOAMERICANA PARA EL ACCESO JUSTO AL CONOCIMIENTO
[Fundación Karisma] Entre el 9 y el 13 de mayo de 2022 tuvo lugar la cuadragésima segunda sesión del Comité Permanente de Derecho de Autor y Derechos Conexos de la Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (SCCR 42 de la OMPI). Para esta ocasión, seis organizaciones de la sociedad civil latinoamericana coordinamos acciones conformando la Alianza de la Sociedad Civil Latinoamericana para el Acceso Justo al Conocimiento. Las organizaciones con estatus de observadoras, Fundación Karisma de Colombia y Fundación Vía Libre de Argentina, en conjunto con las organizaciones que conformamos la Alianza, a saber: Datysoc de Uruguay, Derechos Digitales de Chile, Hiperderecho de Perú, IBDAutoral e InternetLab de Brasil, asistimos al SCCR 42 para presentar nuestro posicionamiento en relación con los puntos de la agenda, especialmente aquellos relacionados con la agenda de limitaciones y excepciones al derecho de autor.
The WIPO Files II: Is International Lawmaking on Copyright Still Possible?
[Teresa Nobre] The 42nd session of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) took place from 9 to 13 May 2022 in Geneva. This was the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic started that most of the delegates were reunited in person. In 2020 and 2021, the Committee held hybrid format sessions of online and in-person participation, with most of the delegations attending remotely. The number of meetings were reduced from two regular sessions to one per year as a result and the Committee agreed not to engage in text-based negotiations during those sessions. The return to Geneva could have led one to believe that there might be a renewed interest in moving the Committee’s agenda forward. But as the days passed by, without a consensus on any agenda item, this hope faded away. Only when the session was coming to an end did the delegates finally agree on a few next steps for the two main agenda items of the Committee, in both cases falling short of the initial expectations.
Re:Create Interview with Sean Flynn
[ReCreate] For our latest Copyright Corner Q&A series installment, Re:Create spoke with Sean Flynn, Director of the American University Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property. Flynn helps explain the meaning of “information justice,” the restrictions that continue to constrain research and education – even in today’s digital age – and how global IP laws impact access to the Covid vaccine. Flynn also helps readers better understand how the ability to make and use research materials is core to the freedom of expression and how copyright law can become an unjustifiable restriction without adequate exceptions.
COMMUNIA Statement to the 42nd WIPO SCCR on Limitations and Exceptions for Education and Research
[Teresa Nobre] …There is absolutely no doubt that the restrictions copyright laws pose on access to knowledge and information condition the right to education and the right to research, and that educational and research exceptions would benefit society as a whole. That is what will determine whether teachers can show a short news report during live-streamed online classes, whether researchers can conduct medical research or track disinformation online.
Intellectual Property Institute Statement on the 42nd WIPO SCCR
[Intellectual Property Institute] The first half of the event focused on the Broadcasting Treaty proposal, which SCCR first discussed more than 15 years ago. The proposal would grant new exclusive rights to broadcasting organisations, but falls short on granting the necessary exceptions and limitations in public interest. NGOs such as Communia and EIFL have harshly criticised the proposal in that regard. In the second half of the event, exceptions and limitations to copyright for educational and research institutions were the focus of the discussion. The African group of delegates prepared and presented a draft programme proposal on the issue. They drew attention to the difficulties, encountered in African educational institutions, due to copyright protection of educational materials. In addition, many African libraries mostly operate in physical form and have poor access to digital materials.
PIJIP Statement at the 42nd Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights
The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property provides the following comments and information related to the agenda items being considered at the 42nd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. The comment includes sections on 1. our new study on research exceptions in comparative copyright, 2. limitations and exceptions in the broadcast treaty, and 3. the African Proposal for a Work Plan on limitations and exceptions.
Research Exceptions in Comparative Copyright
[Sean Flynn, Luca Schirru, Michael Palmedo, and Andrés Izquierdo] Abstract: This Article categorizes the world’s copyright laws according to the degree to which they provide exceptions to copyright exclusivity for research uses. We classify countries based on the degree to which they have a research exception in their law that is sufficiently open to be able to permit reproduction and communications of copyrighted work needed for academic (i.e. non-commercial) text and data mining (TDM) research. We show that nearly every copyright law has at least one exception that promotes uses for research purposes. We find six different approaches to the provision of research exceptions that implicate application to TDM.
