The Sale of Bob Dylan’s Catalogue and Reversion Rights in South Africa
Universal Music Publishing Group’s purchase of the copyrights to 600 of Bob Dylan’s songs for over $300 million demonstrates the importance of reversion rights to artists. In many countries, a creator who assigns his copyright to a publisher has an opportunity to recapture her rights at some point in the future. These “reversion” or “termination” rights recognize that early in the artist’s career, she has little bargaining strength, and may enter into a one-sided deal favoring the publisher. These reversion rights apply regardless of the contract the artist may have signed with the publisher.
12 South African Civil Society Groups Demonstrate for COPyright Reform on UN International Human Rights Day
On December 10, International Human Rights Day, twelve South African civil society groups called on the government to modernize its copyright law. The groups led a march from the Department of Trade and Industry to the Union Buildings and delivered a memorandum demanding the passage of copyright reform to protect vital rights.
WIPO’s missed opportunity to produce guidance on copyright exceptions hits education during pandemic
[Education International] A legal instrument on copyright exceptions for the use of materials for teaching, learning, research, and the work of cultural heritage organisations is still not available. According to Education International, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) missed an opportunity at its recent Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) to show leadership on this issue.
Copyright and COVID-19: Has WIPO learned nothing from the pandemic?
[Teresa Nobre] In November, Communia participated in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) 40th session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), the most important forum at the global level for copyright rulemaking… Communia and other civil society observers were expecting the Committee to consider the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on these public interest activities, and take appropriate action. However, WIPO member states had previously decided that, due to the format of the meeting, they would not engage in negotiations on any of the items on their agenda. Therefore, despite references to the problems caused by the pandemic in several Delegations’ statements, none put forward any proposal to deal with these issues. Click here for more.
A Path to Progress at WIPO: Tackling Confusion, Complexity, and a Can’t-Do Attitude
[IFLA] The 40th meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights was far from what was expected when IFLA and others last left Geneva in October 2019, at the end of the 39th meeting. The dates had changed (the meeting had been planned for July), the WIPO Director General had changed (Daren Tang took over on 1 October), and of course the format had changed, with all but a handful of those involved doing so via an online platform. Despite all that was different, the meeting nonetheless brought clarity around the long-standing challenges that the SCCR will need to overcome if it is to prove its relevance as a forum for delivering on fundamental rights and the Sustainable Development Goals.
A Doha Declaration for COVID-19? Professor Calls for Positive Agenda at WIPO SCCR
[PIJIP] Covid-19 has forced schools and universities around the world to abruptly move online, necessitating the reproduction and sharing of works in the digital environment. Yet many nations’ copyright exceptions for education fail to protect user rights online. In his statement before the 40th World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), Professor Sean Flynn proposed a “Doha Declaration for Covid” to “explain and promote the current flexibilities in the international system, and encourage their expansive interpretation to fulfil human rights.”
15 Years and a Pandemic Later: Are We THere Yet?
[Teresa Nobre] In our capacity of permanent observers of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), we are attending the 40th session of the Committee, which is taking place in a hybrid format of in-person and online participation from 16 to 20 November 2020. The following is the statement made on behalf of Communia on limitations and exceptions for educational and research institutions and for persons with other disabilities.
HOW South Africa’s COPYRIGHT BILL WOULD BENEFIT CITIZENS DURING COVID
South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill had been sitting on the desk of President Cyril Ramaphosa for over a year, waiting to be signed into law. But instead of signing the bill, the President returned it to parliament citing constitutional concerns with certain aspects, including new exceptions for libraries, education and persons with disabilities. If enacted, the bill would have helped teaching, learning and research during COVID-19 lockdowns. Instead South Africans are forced to struggle under the current, outdated law. EIFL guest blogger Denise R. Nicholson, Scholarly Communications Librarian, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, discusses challenges and issues.
Implementation update: French Parliament gives carte blanche, while the Netherlands correct course
[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.
Justices Display Concern About Monopolization and Disruption in Google v. Oracle Argument
In yesterday’s oral argument in Google v. Oracle, several Justices expressed serious concerns that an Oracle victory could lead to legal monopolies over de facto standards and serious disruption of settled expectations in the software industry… Significantly, all the Justices understood that the case concerned only the lawfulness of Google’s use of the declarations in the Java application programming interface (“API”), as opposed to the copyrightability of computer programs more generally.
