Day October 15, 2019

Civil Society Groups Criticize WIPO Broadcast Treaty Limitations and Exceptions

[Memorandum Endorsed by Seven Civil Society Groups] A broad collection of civil society organizations, including the representatives of thousands of libraries and over 30 million teachers, sent a letter to country delegates of the World Intellectual Property Organization criticizing the draft Broadcasting Treaty being considered by member states next week. At issue is the draft treaty’s limitations and exceptions clause, which the organizations argue “would fail to ensure all uses allowed by copyright” and would “add new international law restrictions on the adoption of limitations and exceptions for parties to the Rome Convention.”

Copyright Flexibility Opens the Door to Decisive AI Advantages

New copyright legislation will be the first government implementation of policy for the fourth industrial revolution in SA. The Copyright Amendment Bill of 2017 before the president for signature features copyright flexibilities needed for SA to benefit from the fourth industrial revolution. These will free SA entrepreneurs to develop innovative techniques of data analysis without holdup from copyright holders, to grow local data analysis capacity and allow innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things.