Category Bilateral Trade Pressures

Moving Towards a New Copyright Bargain: Lecture by Rebecca Giblin

Copyright laws are beset from every angle. They're criticized for failing to recognize and reward creators, for blocking new forms of creativity, for limiting access to knowledge and for causing culture to be lost. Copyright's fundamental structures were settled before the digital era, but are cemented in by outdated and effectively unamendable treaties. In this public lecture, Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow Rebecca Giblin illuminates a path forward to a new copyright bargain: one that, by taking authors' interests seriously, would simultaneously reclaim lost culture, promote access to knowledge and help authors get paid - all within those unamendable treaty frameworks.

China Claims U.S.’s Section 301 Investigation into Its Tech Transfer and IP Licensing Policies May Violate WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding

Last week, China warned that the U.S.'s threat of unilateral sanctions under Section 301 of the Trade Act violates its WTO commitment to settle disputes within the WTO Dispute Settlement framework, and it referred to a previous case in which a panel addresses how the U.S. could use Section 301 and stay within the bounds of the WTO framework.

Don’t Be Afraid of Compulsory Licenses Despite US Threats: Special 301 Reports 1998-2017 – Listing Concerns but Taking Little Action

For the past 20 years in its annual Special 301 Reports, the US has consistently criticized countries that do not have compulsory licensing standards that Big Pharma likes, that threaten to issue compulsory licenses, or that have actually had the temerity to issue a compulsory license... Despite its many complaints, veiled threats, and backroom maneuvers against compulsory licenses, the USTR’s bark has been much, much louder than it’s bite. 

Further evidence of risks from US Certification in TPP: Australia’s experience in the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement

US demanded additional legislation on copyright before it would certify Australia’s FTA compliance  In August 2014 a memorandum and supporting documents published on the website www.tppnocertification.org exposed how the United States uses a process called ‘certification’ to require other countries…