Advocating for a world where intellectual
property law serves the public interest.

Congress Funds $5 Million Open Textbook Grant Program in 2018 Spending Bill

[Nicole Allen, SPARC] Update: The FY18 omnibus appropriations bill was signed into law on March 23, 2018, including the $5 million open textbook grant program. In a landmark victory for the Open Education movement, the U.S. Congress has included funding for a $5 million open textbook grant program in the Fiscal Year 2018 omnibus appropriations bill unveiled today. This marks
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Communia Association: Our study “Educational Licences in Europe” is out now

[Teresa Nobre] The European Union is coming closer to approving a mandatory educational exception that may address some of the limitations copyright law places on everyday educational activities. However, the current proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market would allow licences that are easily available in the market to take precedence over the educational exception. Our
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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
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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
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Project Gutenberg Blocks Access In Germany To All Its Public Domain Books Because Of Local Copyright Claim On 18 Of Them

[Glyn Moody] Project Gutenberg, which currently offers 56,000 free ebooks, is one of the treasures of the Internet, but it is not as well known as it should be. Started in 1991 by Michael S. Hart, who sadly died in 2011, Project Gutenberg is dedicated to making public domain texts widely available. Over the last 25 years, volunteers have painstakingly
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Address on Copyright Limitations at the 2018 JET Law Symposium

The Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law and Professor Daniel Gervais hosted the 2018 Symposium titled JETLaw Symposium, Dramatic Changes: The Effect of International Trade on Intellectual Property and Human Rights on Thursday, January 25, 2018 at Vanderbilt Law School. The Symposium featured three panels of scholars discussing issues related to the intersection of these three topics.
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