WTO Extends Measures for LDCs to Access Knowledge, But Why not Go the Whole Way?
[Teresa Hackett] When members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) recently agreed to extend the transition period by which Least Developed Countries (LDCs) must apply WTO rules on intellectual property, it was a welcome decision. However, it fell short of what LDCs had requested, and left open the wider issue of the need for special and differential treatment after a country graduates from LDC status, especially relevant given the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Global Congress Side-event – CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – Workshop on copyright and the digital economy
[Pedro Mizukami] InternetLab, Fundación Karisma, and the Ford Foundation would like to invite you to a workshop session on copyright and the digital economy held on October 28 and 29 as part of the 2021 Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest’s #IPWEEK2021. In line with the Global Congress mandate of bridging research and advocacy, the workshop will provide participants with a forum to present materials for feedback and discussion, in a structured, dynamic format, with opportunities for publication in two different tracks.
Joint Submission by 14 Scholars to the Government of Canada, re: Copyright, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things
This submission concerns the interaction between copyright and AI. The recommendations herein reflect the shared opinion of the intellectual property scholars who are signatories to this brief… In what follows, we explain: The importance of approaching the questions raised in the consultation with a firm commitment to maintaining the appropriate balance of rights and interests in Canada’s copyright system, consistent with a robust principle of technological neutrality; The importance of ensuring that text and data mining (TDM) activity can be undertaken in Canada without the threat of potential copyright liability. We therefore propose both an opening up of Canada’s fair dealing doctrine to better accommodate TDM activities, and the enactment of a specific statutory provision to confirm that uses of copyright works and other subject matter for TDM (whether commercial or non-commercial) do not infringe copyright; The importance of resisting calls to extend copyright protection to AI-generated outputs. We therefore propose maintaining and confirming the existing principled requirements of human authorship and original expression as preconditions of copyright protection, and we caution against any move to establish new neighbouring or sui generis rights in respect of AI outputs. Works generated by AI should remain in the public domain.
Now available: Open educational resource of Building Legal Literacies for Text Data Mining
[Timothy Vollmer] Last summer we hosted the Building Legal Literacies for Text Data Mining (LLTDM) institute… the participants and project team reconvened in February 2021 to discuss how participants had been thinking about, performing, or supporting TDM in their home institutions and projects with the law and policy literacies in mind. To maximize the reach and impact of Building LLTDM, we have now published a comprehensive open educational resource (OER) of the contents of the institute. The OER covers copyright (both U.S. and international law), technological protection measures, privacy, and ethical considerations.
Call for Proposals: Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest #IPWeek2021
From July 26 to September 10, the call for proposals will be open for the collaborative agenda of #IPWeek2021, Intellectual Property Week, the Public Interest, and COVID-19: learnings, discoveries, and challenges. This new version of Intellectual Property, Public Interest and COVID-19 Week will address the lessons and discoveries that the COVID-19 pandemic left to society, and future challenges in the post-pandemic period, in the relationship framework between intellectual property and the public interest.
Overview of SCCR 41 Progress on A2K Priorities: Broadcast, Copyright and COVID, Limitations and Exceptions
[Sean Flynn] PIJIP and other members of the global Access to Knowledge (A2K) Coalition participated as registered observers in the 41st meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. This note summarizes the positions of delegations and the recorded outcomes of that meeting in relation to the policy aims of the Coalition.
WIPO Agrees to Hold Information Session on COVID
[Electronic Information for Libraries] WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR/41) has just held its first – and only – meeting in 2021. EIFL was represented by Teresa Hackett, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager, Dick Kawooya, University of South Carolina, and EIFL Copyright Coordinator in Senegal, Awa Cissé, Universite Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Dakar…EIFL called for action on two agenda items: fair access to broadcast content in the proposed treaty for the protection of broadcast organizations, and for work to begin on exceptions for preservation and other priority areas. We also urged extreme caution on starting any work on the controversial issue of public lending right. In the main concrete outcome of the session, the Committee decided to hold an information session on the impact of the COVID pandemic on the cultural, creative and educational ecosystem during SCCR/42, which is due to take place in 2022.
Submission to South African Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry – RE: Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B – 2017]
[Global Expert Network on Copyright User Rights] We provide this comment on Clause 13, section 12A of the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B-2017]. Section 12A is an open general exception for “fair use” of copyrighted works. This provision is largely an updating of South Africa’s current general exception for “fair dealing” with a copyrighted work. The primary improvements of Section 12A over the current fair dealing exception are (1) to open the list purposes to which the exception can apply by virtue of including the words “such as” before the list of authorized purposes, and (2) providing an explicit balancing test to determine whether a particular use is fair.
ANALYSIS OF WIPO SCCR 41 AGENDA: Day 2, Limitations and Exceptions
[Sean Flynn] This note provides analysis of the Limitations and Exceptions agenda item of the WIPO SCCR 41 Agenda, currently slated to be discussed on June 29-30. The Agenda calls for Members, IGOs and NGOs “to make general comments, with a focus on the Report on Regional Seminars and International Conference (SCCR/40/2), especially the sections on The Way Forward and Take-Away Considerations (pages 63-72).” It also invites “inputs on possible next steps, including the possibility of holding a number of regional consultations before the next session to further develop the understanding of the situation of the cultural and educational and research institutions at the local level, especially in light of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on them.” This note analyzes these two issues separately, and concludes with suggestions of elements that be included in a work plan for SCCR going forward.
Debunking the Fair Use vs. Fair Dealing Myth: Have We Had Fair Use All Along?
[Ariel Katz] Abstract: According to conventional wisdom, a fundamental difference exists between the American fair use doctrine and the Canadian fair dealing doctrine (or that of other Commonwealth countries): while American fair use can apply potentially to any purpose, fair dealing could only apply to the explicit purposes enumerated in the statute. Accordingly, the argument goes, fair dealing cannot apply to dealings for unenumerated purposes no matter how fair they might be. This conventional wisdom is false.
