Category Blog

Germany’s Non-Paper on Art. 13 Screams “Houston, We Have a Problem”

[Teresa Nobre] ... Germany proposes to mitigate the negative effects of art. 13 by 1) exempting platforms with a turnover of up to 20 Mio. Euros per year from the obligations imposed by art. 13., 2) exempting platforms from liability in certain situations (e.g. if they made best efforts to obtain an authorization from the rightsholders), and 3) introducing a mandatory EU-wide user-generated content exception to copyright, subject to the payment of a fair remuneration to the rightsholders.

Ancillary Copyright and Liability of Intermediaries in the EU Directive Proposal on Copyright

[Giovanni Maria Riccio] Abstract: The present study is focused on article 11 and article 13 of the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market. The study underlines the inefficiency, from both a legal and economic perspective, of the measures held by the EU Commission, considering the purposes of these interventions.

USMCA Would Better Serve U.S. Interests with the Addition of a Copyright Balance Provision

[Comments to the International Trade Commission on the economic impact of the USMCA] Last year, we submitted comments to USTR regarding negotiating objectives for US-Mexico-Canada Agreement in which we recommended that U.S. negotiators seek a copyright provision that balances the interest of rightholders and users of copyrighted works... Unfortunately, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement does not include a copyright balancing provision. By excluding the provision, the United States loses an opportunity to promote the interests of firms in some of its most innovative sectors.

Secondary Liability and Safe Harbors for Internet Service Providers

This is the second in a series of blogs comparing copyright and technology provisions in eight trade agreements: TPP, CPTPP, USMCA, CETA, RCEP, EU-Mercosur FTA, EU-Japan FTA and the China-Korea FTA. The previous post discussed provisions calling for copyright ‘balance’ and addressing the circumvention of technological protection measures. This one looks at the provisions requiring secondary liability for internet service providers (ISPs) and allowing-or-requiring safe harbors from such liability.

The Gap Between Artistic Practice and Copyright Rhetoric

[Jonathan Band] A recent article by Pulitzer Prize winning art critic Jerry Saltz demonstrates the gap between the artistic process and the rhetoric of copyright policy. In “How to be an Artist,” Saltz provides 33 lessons “to take you from clueless amateur to generational talent.” The lessons underscore the importance of imitation and non-financial incentives to a fulfilling creative life.

Facilitating Wider Access to Europe’s Cultural Heritage in the Digital Environment: Opinion of the CEIPI on the European Commission’s Copyright Reform Proposal, with a Focus on Access to Out-of-Commerce Works

[Christophe Geiger, Giancarlo Frosio and Oleksandr Bulayenko] The Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market aims at facilitating wider access to Europe’s cultural heritage through the introduction of inter alia a mechanism enabling the use of out-of-commerce works by cultural heritage institutions in the digital environment. After examining the key elements of this mechanism, this Opinion critically discusses the definition of the scope of search required for establishing the out-of-commerce status of works, the requirement of the representative character of collective management organisations and the non-application of the mechanism to third-country works.

Global Copyright Reform Efforts – As Told By Libraries, Museums, and Archives

American University’s Washington College of Law hosted the 5th Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest. A workshop led by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) entitled “Out of the Stacks: A World Tour of Library, Archive, and Museum Copyright Reform” featured a panel, which discussed current and future copyright reform efforts in several countries. The panel highlighted laws that lack clarity or are inadequate to meet modern needs. Many advocated for efforts to create provisions that are essential to libraries, museums, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions. Without these provisions, many of these institutions are unable to provide access to certain copyrighted works, which the public has come to enjoy.

U.S., Canada and Mexico Agree Upon, and Release, Renegotiated Trade Agreement Text

Trade negotiators from the U.S., Canada and Mexico have agreed to a new NAFTA text. To take effect, the agreement will need to be approved by legislatures in all countries.... The Intellectual Property chapter lengthens copyright terms, and it does not include a version of the copyright balance language found in Art. 16.88 of the TPP. It requires 10 years of marketing exclusivity for biologic drugs and patents on second uses. 

Software Preservation Best Practices in Fair Use to Help Safeguard Cultural Record, Advance Research

The new Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation provides clear guidance on the legality of archiving legacy software to ensure continued access to digital files of all kinds and to illuminate the history of technology. This Code was made by and for the software preservation community, with the help of legal and technical experts. The publication provides librarians, archivists, curators, and others who work to preserve software with a tool to guide their reasoning about when and how to employ fair use—the legal doctrine that allows many value-added uses of copyrighted materials—in the most common situations they currently face.

The First Rule of Copyright Reform: Don’t Mess With Free Speech and Net Neutrality

... What distinguishes the European copyright reform experience from others and what lessons might be learned for future efforts around the world? One takeaway is that there are presently two kinds of copyright reforms. The first involves a conventional balancing of copyright interests, typically framed as creator rights on the one hand and users’ rights on the other. Ensuring both appropriate compensation and reasonable rights of access and reuse are invariably contentious, but they are largely limited to copyright-related considerations... This stands in marked contrast to the second kind of copyright reform, which uses law to mandate copyright enforcement through regulating technology and digital networks. Those proposals have implications that extend far beyond the copyright balance, sparking concerns related to freedom of expression, privacy, and net neutrality.

Wink, Wink: Pfizer Agrees to Roll Back Price Hikes

In a staged play designed to give cover both to President Trump and Big Pharma, Pfizer has announced a temporary roll back of its extortionate price hikes on 41 medicines averaging nearly 9% over and above its existing monopoly prices.  A scene-by-scene recap reveals the cozy, mutually beneficial farce that Trump and Pfizer are enacting. Scene One:  Drug companies like Pfizer use their patent and data-protection monopolies to set prices at whatever the market will bear, with U.S. purchasers paying nearly twice as much as is paid in countries with more rational approaches to trying to prevent abusive pricing.