Category Empirical Research

Copyright, Online News Publishing and Aggregators: A Law and Economics Analysis of the EU Reform

[Giuseppe Colangelo and Valerio Torti] Abstract: On 12 September 2018 the European Parliament approved the new version of the proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market elaborated by the European Commission in 2016. In order to address problems in protecting content and improve the bargaining position of press publishers against information society service providers, the European Commission decided to intervene on rights, introducing an additional layer of copyright, namely a new neighbouring right that will cover reproduction and the making available to the public of press publications to the extent that digital uses are concerned.

Calculating the Consequences of Narrow Australian Copyright Exceptions: Measurable, Hidden and Incalculable Costs to Creators

[Patricia Aufderheide, Kylie Pappalardo, Nicolas Suzor and Jessica Stevens] Abstract: The kind and extent of exceptions and limitations to copyright monopolies are a major focus of copyright reform discussion worldwide. The debate is often portrayed as pitting the interests of creators against users. Australian copyright law features narrow and limited exceptions. Australian creators benefit from copyright monopolies; but do they suffer any costs for lack of flexible exceptions? A national survey of creators showed that they experience significant costs in time and money in making work; avoid or abandon projects because of copyright problems; and avoid developing ideas for projects that involve use of third-party copyrighted materials.

Behind the Scenes of Online Copyright Enforcement: Empirical Evidence on Notice & Takedown

[Sharon Bar-Ziv and Niva Elkin-Koren] Abstract: Copyright enforcement was one of the early challenges to the rule of law on the internet and has shaped its development since the early 1990s. The Notice and Takedown (N&TD) regime, enacted in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, offered online intermediaries immunity from liability in exchange for removing allegedly infringing materials upon receiving notice from rights holders. The unequivocal power of rights holders to request removal and the strong incentives for online intermediaries to remove content upon receiving a removal request have turned the N&TD regime into a robust clean-up mechanism for removing any unwarranted content. The N&TD procedure applies to private facilities, makes use of proprietary software, and is administered by private companies. This enforcement procedure is nontransparent and lacks sufficient legal or public oversight. Unlike copyright enforcement in court, where decisions are made public, we know very little about the actual implementation of the N&TD regime: Which players make use of the system? Who is targeted? What materials get removed and why? How effective is the removal of infringing materials, and does it comply with copyright law?

Overpatented, Overpriced: How Excessive Pharmaceutical Patenting is Extending Monopolies and Driving up Drug Prices

[I-MAK] This report analyzes the twelve best selling drugs in the United States and reveals that drugmakers file hundreds of patent applications – the vast majority of which are granted – to extend their monopolies far beyond the twenty years of protection intended under U.S. patent law. These patents are used by drugmakers for the purpose of forestalling generic competition while continuing to increase the price of these drugs.

Global Online Piracy Study

[University of Amsterdam Institute for Information Law (IViR)] This report deals with the acquisition and consumption of music, films, series, books and games through the various legal and illegal channels that exist nowadays, in a set of 13 countries in Europe (France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden), the Americas (Brazil, Canada) and Asia (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand). The illegal channels studied are downloading and streaming from illegal sources (including via dedicated technical devices), and streamripping.

Global Innovation Divide: Can Investment In Innovation Bridge The Gap?

[David Branigan and William New] The Global Innovation Index 2018, launched on 10 July in New York, has lauded the rise of China as a model for how other low and middle-income economies can advance on innovation. Amid this optimism, however, the global innovation divide remains in step with the global income divide, raising questions for how to bridge this gap. The new index shows signs of progress.

Global Innovation Index 2018: China Breaks Into Top 20, US Drops Out Of Top 5

[David Branigan, IP-Watch]  The 11th edition of the Global Innovation Index 2018 (GII), co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization, was released yesterday at a launch event in New York. This year’s report showed Switzerland still at the top overall, China continuing to rise, the United States slipping, and explored how countries can vary on inputs and outputs of innovation. “The GII ranks 126 economies based on 80 indicators, ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications,” according to a WIPO press release.

Projected Savings Through Public Health Voluntary Licences of HIV Drugs Negotiated By The Medicines Patent Pool

[Sandeep Juneja, Aastha Gupta, Suerie Moon, and Stephen Resch] Abstract: ... While robust data on the savings generated by MPP and other major global public health initiatives is important, it is also difficult to quantify. In this study, we estimate the savings generated by licences negotiated by the MPP for ARV medicines to treat HIV/AIDS in LMICs for the period 2010–2028 and generate a cost-benefit ratio–based on people living with HIV (PLHIVs) in any new countries which gain access to an ARV due to MPP licences and the price differential between originator’s tiered price and generics price, within the period where that ARV is patented.

South Africa Seminar to Focus on Impact of User Rights in Copyright Reform

On May 8, Professor Sean Flynn will release the latest PIJIP report - The User Rights Database: Measuring the Impact of Copyright Balance at a public lecture at University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. The report is being released as the South Africa Parliament deliberates on a copyright amendment bill that includes a proposal to adopt a new open and flexible general exception modeled on the US fair use clause.

PIJIP Letter to Colombian Government on Art. 14 of the Proposed Copyright Reform

... We write today to offer our views on Article 14 of the proposed Copyright reform dealing with limitations and exceptions. Our central concern is that Colombia take advantage of the flexibility in the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement to adopt a general public interest limitation and exception that can authorize future uses of copyright content that might not be envisioned today but that nevertheless would be fair under the standards of all international copyright laws.

Estimating Displacement Rates of Copyrighted Content In the EU

[Martin van der Ende et.al.] In 2014, on average 51 per cent of the adults and 72 per cent of the minors in the EU have illegally downloaded or streamed any form of creative content, with higher piracy rates in Poland and Spain than in the other four countries of this study. In general, the results do not show robust statistical evidence of displacement of sales by online copyright infringements.

Intellectual Property Use in Middle Income Countries: The Case of Chile

Authors: Carsten Fink, Bronwyn Hall and Christian Helmers. Abstract: We analyze the use of intellectual property (IP) by firms in Chile over the decade 1995-2005 as the then middle-income country experienced rapid economic growth of 4.7 percent per year. We use a novel dataset that contains a combination of detailed firm-level information from the annual manufacturing census, information on firms’ innovative activities from Chile’s innovation surveys, and firms’ patent, industrial design, and trademark filings with the Chilean IP office.