REPOST

REPOST

  • Joined: March 14, 2011
  • Articles: 726

EU Copyright Reform Grinds into Trilogue Negotiations

[Communia Association] Last month the notorious EU Parliament vote approved almost all of the worst measures of the proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. It was a significant setback for user rights and the open internet. ...After the plenary vote in the Parliament on 12th September, the Directive moves into trilogue negotiations consisting of the Commission, Parliament, and Council of the European Union (the EU Member State governments). The first official meeting of the trilogue was held on 2 October. ...The trilogue bodies will work to reconcile their versions of the directive text, and a final vote will take place in the European Parliament in early 2019.

Submission by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) on the Statutory Review of the Canadian Copyright Act

[Gerald Leitner] IFLA specifically expresses support for the following points: A) Maintain the fair dealing exception for education... B) Retain the current copyright term of 50 years... C) Protect copyright exceptions from contract override and allow the circumvention of technological protection measures for non-infringing purposes... D) Provide clarity on the legal status of text and data mining (TDM)... E) Ensure e-book availability... F) Indigenous Knowledge.

What’s Next with WIPO’s Ill-Advised Broadcast Treaty?

[Tim Vollmer] ... The current text contains many of the same damaging provisions, such as long term of protection (possibly 50 years) and little to no support for limitations and exceptions to the right which could provide needed protections for activities such as news reporting, quotation, education, personal use, and archiving. But the dealbreaker for CC is the fact that the treaty would essentially invalidate the permissions that users of Creative Commons grant when they share their creativity under open licenses, and instead gift new and unwarranted rights to broadcasting organizations that have added little or no value to the underlying work being transmitted.

When Copyright Meets the Public Interest: A Week at the 5th Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest

[International Federation of Library Associations] Seven years ago, at the first Global Congress, the Washington Declaration was adopted: a text by civil society that underlines the importance of the public interest within intellectual property conversations. It also makes several recommendations to ensure, for instance, that exceptions and limitations to copyright are strengthened, that the public domain’s openness is valued, and that cultural creativity is supported. Now, a couple of years later, much progress had been made but there is much left to do to achieve its goals. The Global Congress contributes to that. It is a forum for discussion on the intersection between intellectual property (copyright, patents, etc.) and the public interest.

South Centre Statement to the Third High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases

[Carlos Correa, South Centre]... More progress needs to be made to improve access to affordable, good-quality essential medicines and vaccines for all. In addition to increasing investment in access, governments should put in place supportive policies and effective regulation. In this context, it is significant that the Declaration reaffirms the right of countries to the full use of the flexibilities of the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), in line with the recommendations by the UN High Level Panel on Access to Medicines. The South Centre offers its technical support for the effective use of TRIPS flexibilities to promote access to medicines.

EU Parliament Vote: An Unprecedented Copyright Giveaway

[Communia Association] There is no way around it, the outcome of today’s vote on the copyright directive in the European Parliament is a big loss for user rights and the open internet. MEPs have decidedly sided with the demands of the creative industries to hand them more control over how we access, use and share copyrighted works. Out of the seven issues that we listed this morning the European parliament voted against our position every single time.

Open Letter to Johnson & Johnson: Calling for Affordable Access to Critical TB Drug Bedaquiline

[Medicins Sans Fronteirs] Dear Dr Stoffels: For the past decade, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been in dialogue with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) about the critically important TB drug bedaquiline, including on access to bedaquiline for MSF-run clinical trials, compassionate use of bedaquiline for people with extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), and routine use of bedaquiline to treat multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in MSF medical projects. We are writing now to J&J regarding the need for all countries to secure an affordable and sustainable supply of bedaquiline given the expanded use of bedaquiline to treat more forms of MDR-TB globally.

What’s Going on With the EU Copyright Reform for Education?

[Lisette Kalshoven] The next major step in the EU copyright reform process is the vote scheduled for 12 September, when the entire European Parliament (about 750 people) will vote on amendments that are being put forward until 5 September. They will vote on amendments to the text put forward by the European Commission, which was shared back in 2016. The JURI report, which was rejected on 5 July by the parliament had several improvements for the education exception on article 4. It was, however, not nearly enough to truly make copyright work for education in Europe. For the purpose of the vote on 12 September, we need to work with the Commission text. Below we will share the three most important things to fix.

I-MAK & Delhi Network of Positive People File Opposition to Prevent AbbVie Patent Grant on Hepatitis C Treatment

[I-MAK & Delhi Network of Positive People] On July 21, the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK) and the Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+) filed a pre-grant patent opposition with the Indian Patent Office in Delhi against pibrentasvir (PIB), part of the drug combination that forms AbbVie’s hepatitis C (HCV) product, Mavyret. Filed on the eve of the 2018 International AIDS conference, the opposition has significant implications for millions of patients and families struggling to afford and access hepatitis C treatment: if granted, a pibrentasvir patent could block generic entrants from supplying the product in India and other low and middle-income countries, where the majority of people with HCV live.