A draft report by the Australian Productivity Commission (APC) concludes that the current copyright law fails to properly balance the interests of copyright holders and users. It warns that “Australia’s copyright arrangements are weighed too heavily in favour of copyright…
The Pennsylvania Fair Trade Coalition (PFTC) has released questionnaires completed by candidates Sanders and Clinton on their views on the Trans Pacific Partnership. The questionnaires consist of ten questions and allow the candidates to give detailed answers. Topics include intellectual…
Intellectual property scholars and researchers from prominent universities in the U.S., Canada and Australia have released a submission to the Australian Productivity Commission strongly criticizing a report by PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PWC) on the economics of fair use (PWC Report).” According to…
Authors: Jennifer M. Urban, Joe Karaganis, and Brianna L. Schofield Abstract: It has been nearly twenty years since section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act established the so-called notice and takedown process. Despite its importance to copyright holders, online…
[Paul Keller, Communia Assoc., Link (CC-0)] We spend a lot of effort pointing out that additional copyright, like rights for specific groups of rights holders, are a problematic concept that has potential to cause a lot of damage to the Public Domain.…
Last week, President Obama signed the Trade Enforcement and Trade Facilitation Act of 2015 into law. It made news primarily due to the provisions allowing Customs to block entry of goods made by slave labor, but readers of this blog…
[Australian Digital Alliance, Link (CC-BY)] This week is Fair Use Week/Fair Dealing Week, and initiative started by the Association of Research Libraries which celebrates the importance of flexible exceptions to copyright systems around the world. So it seems like the perfect…
[Kate Ribet, MSF/Fix the Patent Laws, Link (CC-BY-SA)] Leading up to World Cancer Day (4 February 2016), the Fix the Patent Laws coalition released a short video highlighting how shortcomings in South Africa’s patent laws contribute to barriers to access…
Dugie Standeford for IP-Watch, Link (CC-BY-NC-SA) The Nigerian government has continued to make progress toward new copyright legislation in recent weeks, but efforts appear to have become less transparent, as the results of a public comment period that ended weeks…
PIJIP Professors Carroll, Jaszi, and Flynn have submitted comments to the Nigerian Copyright Commission, which has posted a Draft Copyright Bill (2015) for public review. The release is part of its Project on the Reform of the Nigerian Copyright System,…
[Cross posted from Medium] Published by the Australian Government on the 20th March 2014, the independent “Pharmaceutical Patents Review Report” recommends to shorten and reduce patent term extensions, to address the problems of evergreening and data protection, and to reverse…
[Gisela Pérez de Acha and Pepe Flores, Digital Rights LAC, Link (CC-BY)] On November 6 2015, the Mexican Ministry of Economy made public the Spanish version of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), allowing a wider view about the effects that the…