[Reposted from CC-USA, Link (CC-BY)] Senators Dick Durbin and Al Franken today introduced the Affordable College Textbook Act, which directs the Secretary of Education to fund the creation of college textbooks and materials to be made available under open licenses. …
Today, the long-awaited Google Books opinion is out. And it’s a winner. The New York district court dismissed the case, writing that “Goggle’s [sic] motion for summary judgment is granted and plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment is denied.” Although…
In the midst of the controversy surrounding the release of a Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiating text on intellectual property by Wikileaks yesterday, over 80 law professors of intellectual property law and related disciplines have written to President Obama,…
[UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education] A new country report on Open Educational Resources in Poland has been published by IITE. The authors Kamil Sliwowski and Karolina Grodecka describe the national educational policy and the structure of the recently…
The Irish Copyright Review Committee has released its report, Modernising Copyright. Below are two excerpts from the introduction. Click here for the full report. Summary of Recommendations The centerpiece recommendations relate to the establishment of a Copyright Council of Ireland…
Authors: Charles R. McManis and Jorge Contreras Abstract: The chapter discusses the statutory and treaty basis for compulsory patent licensing, briefly reviews instances in which compulsory licenses have been issued, surveys the economic rationale behind compulsory licensing and compares the…
Creative Commons, the global network of non-profit organizations best known for their promotion of standard-form copyright licenses that allow creators to voluntarily waive certain exclusive rights and share their content more easily with others, has thrown its weight into the…
[Timothy Vollmer, Creative Commons, Link (CC-BY)] Today Creative Commons released a policy statement expressing its support for copyright reform efforts around the world.
Reposted from Open Educational Resources Policy in Europe, Link (CC-BY-SA) A week ago, the European Commission launched the “Opening Up Education” initiative, a proposal for modernizing the European educational system. The proposal contains a strong “open” component. We’re using this…
[Jonathan Band and Jonathan Gerafi] In the copyright policy debate, proponents of strong copyright protection tend to be dismissive of the quality of freely available content. In response to counter-examples such as open access scholarly publications and advertising-supported business models…
Yesterday, American University’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property held an even the Law and Economics of Copyright Users’ Rights. The event was the launch of an interdisciplinary project to conduct empirical research on the effects of flexibility in…
Economists and legal experts will join in a public discussion of the social and economic benefits of copyright users’ rights on September 26 from 2pm at American University Washington College of Law. The event will bring together top scholars in…