infoJustice

Singapore’s Copyright Act 2021: New Exception for Computational Uses and Updates to Fair Use and Educational Exceptions

[Mike Palmedo] Singapore's new Copyright Act came into force on November 21. The law was amended to keep up with changes in ICT technology that affect the creation and consumption of copyrighted works. The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore has posted a good overview, and three more detailed descriptions... This post highlights three changes to the limitations and exceptions that may be of interest to InfoJustice's readers.

A review of the empirical evidence on copyright exceptions

[Bartolomeo Meletti] Abstract: Exceptions are an essential part of the copyright system. They aim to encourage innovation, serve the public interest or respond to market failures. While extensive theoretical and doctrinal research has examined the history, nature, justification, and judicial interpretation of exceptions, empirical evidence in this area of copyright law is limited. This article aims to synthesise the empirical studies on exceptions currently catalogued on the [CREATe] Copyright Evidence Portal.

Vaccine Knowledge Needs to Be a global Public good

[Ellen 't Hoen] The global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 outbreak has laid bare the lack of an effective mechanism for the sharing of IP and technology required to produce the diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines to respond to the pandemic. The WHO established, in May 2020, well before the first vaccines came to market, the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP): a mechanism to allow the sharing of the IP, knowhow, data and technology that are needed to meet the global need for 11 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as diagnostics and treatments. Companies have so far refused to collaborate with C-TAP, citing the age-old talking point that sharing IP is detrimental to future investments in pharmaceutical innovations – even though the development of COVID-19 vaccines has been de-risked with unprecedented amounts of public financing.