Author: InfoJustice Eds.

Left on Our Own: COVID-19, TRIPS-Plus Free Trade Agreements, and the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Nov 29, 2022 | Access to Medicine, Trade Agreements

[Melissa Omino and Joanna Kahumbu] The cusp of the twentieth anniversary of the WTO Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (hereafter “the Declaration”) was marked by a global pandemic. The Declaration and its iteration in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (hereafter “TRIPS”) Article 31 bis, should have helped to contain the devastation in least developed and developing countries. The reality is that the pandemic is still ongoing, and the Global South led by South Africa and India are seeking a waiver of provisions to the TRIPS Agreement to ensure that COVID-19 therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines reach their citizens in order to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The Copyright Experience of the University of the South Pacific: a Union Perspective

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Nov 29, 2022 | Academic Resources, Domestic Legislation, Limitations and Exceptions

[Elizabeth Reade Fong] Legislation is meant not only to protect but to bring equity. And copyright legislation is not meant to be any different. However, the reality on the ground in a developing country like Fiji has only reinforced the inequity of access to and, more importantly, the use of information for learning and teaching and research for libraries and educational institutions. The pandemic exacerbated the situation!

India-UK FTA Leaked Draft Reveals Nobody’s Gain Except Big Pharma

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Nov 29, 2022 | Access to Medicine, Trade Agreements

[Shirin Syed] The draft of the UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) chapter on intellectual property, leaked on October 31, reveals that there are several TRIPS-plus provisions which will devastate the global supply of generic medicines. The FTA contains harmful IP provision such as diluting the patentability standards, overriding section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act and eliminating pre-grant opposition. If implemented, these provisions would pose a serious threat to the accessibility and affordability of medicines in India and globally.

Reading Sec. 52(1)(za) of the Copyright Act 1957

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Nov 14, 2022 | Limitations and Exceptions

[Arul George Scaria] Abstract: Sec. 52(1)(za) of the Copyright Act 1957 is an important exception provision under the Indian copyright law. It exempts from copyright infringement liability public performance and communication to the public of certain types of copyrighted works in the course of bonafide religious ceremonies and official ceremonies… Recently, a copyright infringement case was initiated before the Delhi High Court by Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), which issues licenses for public performance of sound recordings assigned to it by copyright holders, against Lookpart Exhibitions and Events Private Limited (Lookpart), which provides event management services for different social events including weddings.

Global Civil Society Coalition Promotes Access to Knowledge

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Oct 10, 2022 | IP & Research, Limitations and Exceptions, Multilateral Fora

[Communia Association] Today, the A2K Coalition is launching its website with demands for education, research and cultural heritage… The members of the A2K Coalition represent educators, researchers, students, libraries, archives, museums, other knowledge users and creative communities around the globe. Our individual missions are varied but we all share a vision of a fair and balanced copyright system. Click here for more.

South African Constitutional Court Rectifies Copyright Discrimination for People with Disabilities

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 27, 2022 | Domestic Policies, Limitations and Exceptions, User Rights Network

[Sanya Samtani] In a unanimous judgment, the Constitutional Court of South Africa confirmed the Pretoria High Court’s finding that the Copyright Act 1978 is unconstitutional and unfairly discriminatory to the extent that it fails to provide for for people with visual and print disabilities. This vindicates a decades-long struggle by BlindSA, the applicants, represented by SECTION27. It is also the first instance of a Constitutional Court requiring copyright legislation to provide for an accessible format shifting provision on the basis that constitutional rights are limited by overly restrictive copyright laws.

Overpatented, Overpriced: Tackling the Root of the Drug Pricing Crisis

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Sep 26, 2022 | Blog

[Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge (I-MAK)] The patent system is not working as intended and the public is paying the price. Astronomical prescription drug costs are straining the healthcare system and the budgets of American families and employers. Prescription drug spending has increased 60% in the last decade to over $400 billion today. The status quo is unsustainable.

WIPO Decides to Hold Two Diplomatic Conferences no later than 2024

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Aug 30, 2022 | Multilateral Fora

[Wend Wendland] On July 21, 2022, the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) decided that, by 2024, two diplomatic conferences should take place, one on a proposed new Design Law Treaty, and the other on genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge (TK). Diplomatic conferences are held to negotiate and adopt or revise multilateral treaties and conventions. This decision was as unexpected as it is momentous.

Excerpt: CCIA Comments to USTR on the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jul 11, 2022 | Limitations and Exceptions, Trade Agreements

[CCIA] A flexible copyright regime is necessary for the continued growth of the digital economy. Principles such as fair use are a cornerstone of U.S. copyright law, and industries that rely on this right are a significant contributor to the U.S. economy and exports. CCIA released a report in 2017 on the economic contribution of fair use industries which found that these industries account for 16 percent of the U.S. economy and generate $5.6 trillion in annual revenue. Fair use is also critical to activities central to new areas of innovation and cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence and text and data mining.

Trading Intellectual Property Rights in Europe: From IP Nationalism to International IP

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jul 9, 2022 | Academic Resources

[Aurora Plomer] Abstract: …This article’s original contribution to the existing scholarship is twofold. It shows that European States viewed patents as legal shields against foreign industrial piracy spurred by international trade fairs aimed at showcasing national industrial power and the capture of new markets. Secondly, it documents the legal malleability and indeterminacy of patent rights and the role of courts in providing further definition of these rights largely to the benefit of intellectual property (IP) holders in the nineteenth century.

User Rights in WIPO Broadcast Treaty Must Be Strengthened

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jul 5, 2022 | Limitations and Exceptions, Multilateral Fora, WIPO

[Electronic Information for Libraries] At WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR/42) that took place in May 2022, the Committee agreed that the Chair would revise the Draft Text for the WIPO Broadcasting Organizations Treaty (document SCCR/42/3) based on comments, suggestions and questions from delegations. EIFL’s comments focus on Limitations and Exceptions (Article 10). To ensure fair access to copyright-protected content for social, educational and public interest reasons, EIFL calls for the significant strengthening of Article 10. Currently, there is no obligation to provide exceptions of any kind for social, educational or informational uses because Article 10 is optional, not mandatory. It doesn’t provide for exceptions that are mandatory in other treaties, such as the right of quotation and news of the day in the Berne Convention, and the making of accessible format copies in the Marrakesh Treaty.

WTO Ministerial Decision: ‘TRIPped’ the Waiver

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jun 28, 2022 | Access to Medicine, Coronavirus, Multilateral Fora

[Shirin Syed] The 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) concluded on Friday, June 17, 2022, with a “Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement”, to facilitate exportation of Covid-19 vaccines under the compulsory licence to enhance availability and accessibility for poor countries… The TRIPS Decision no longer remains an IP waiver as proposed originally by India and South Africa and 65 co-sponsors. It lacks the comprehensive measures as in the original proposal to address the concern of production and supply of Covid-19 vaccines to meet global demand, especially from lower-income countries who are deprived of their fair share of vaccines in the current pandemic.

20 New Copyright Policy Recommendations

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jun 21, 2022 | Domestic Legislation, Domestic Policies, Limitations and Exceptions

[Communia Association] This page lists the 20 policy recommendations launched in May 2022. These supersede the 14 policy recommendations that we published in 2011 and that we evaluated in 2021. The policy recommendations have been developed though a consultation process that gathered input from more than 60 academics, activists and other experts that ran from late 2021 to early 2022. This process was made possible though a generous donation by Pam Samuelson and Bob Glushko. Our policy recommendations concern themselves with measures to defend and expand the public domain, measures that protect and promote usage rights, measures to empower creators and their audiences and measures that create safeguards against copyright abuse.

Copyright and COVID: Libraries Take Stock

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jun 21, 2022 | Coronavirus, Limitations and Exceptions

[Teresa Hackett] As the world moves from emergency mode to living with COVID, libraries are taking stock of the impact of the global pandemic on library services from a copyright and licensing perspective. Early results indicate that support for online education and access to knowledge fell short of what was needed during the pandemic.

How Can You Save a Dying Language When Copyright Lets Somebody Own Its Key Learning Materials?

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | Jun 9, 2022 | News

[Glyn Moody] One of deep-seated problems with copyright is that its supporters believe everything created should be “owned” by someone and protected from being “stolen” by others. Walled Culture has already written about how that’s a bad fit for writing music, and the NBC News site has a fascinating story about how the same issue is plaguing a very different world – that of indigenous languages (pointed out by D. J. Mary on Twitter). It concerns the Lakota language, one of many native American languages that are at risk of extinction because so few people speak them fluently. In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to create language resources from the surviving speakers, to prevent the language and its culture being lost, and to produce learning materials.

SOBRE EL SCCR 42 DE LA OMPI Y LA ALIANZA DE LA SOCIEDAD CIVIL LATINOAMERICANA PARA EL ACCESO JUSTO AL CONOCIMIENTO

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | May 27, 2022 | Limitations and Exceptions, Multilateral Fora, User Rights Network

[Fundación Karisma] Entre el 9 y el 13 de mayo de 2022 tuvo lugar la cuadragésima segunda sesión del Comité Permanente de Derecho de Autor y Derechos Conexos de la Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (SCCR 42 de la OMPI). Para esta ocasión, seis organizaciones de la sociedad civil latinoamericana coordinamos acciones conformando la Alianza de la Sociedad Civil Latinoamericana para el Acceso Justo al Conocimiento. Las organizaciones con estatus de observadoras, Fundación Karisma de Colombia y Fundación Vía Libre de Argentina, en conjunto con las organizaciones que conformamos la Alianza, a saber: Datysoc de Uruguay, Derechos Digitales de Chile, Hiperderecho de Perú, IBDAutoral e InternetLab de Brasil, asistimos al SCCR 42 para presentar nuestro posicionamiento en relación con los puntos de la agenda, especialmente aquellos relacionados con la agenda de limitaciones y excepciones al derecho de autor.

The WIPO Files II: Is International Lawmaking on Copyright Still Possible?

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | May 25, 2022 | Limitations and Exceptions, Multilateral Fora, User Rights Network, WIPO

[Teresa Nobre] The 42nd session of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) took place from 9 to 13 May 2022 in Geneva. This was the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic started that most of the delegates were reunited in person. In 2020 and 2021, the Committee held hybrid format sessions of online and in-person participation, with most of the delegations attending remotely. The number of meetings were reduced from two regular sessions to one per year as a result and the Committee agreed not to engage in text-based negotiations during those sessions. The return to Geneva could have led one to believe that there might be a renewed interest in moving the Committee’s agenda forward. But as the days passed by, without a consensus on any agenda item, this hope faded away. Only when the session was coming to an end did the delegates finally agree on a few next steps for the two main agenda items of the Committee, in both cases falling short of the initial expectations.

Libraries, Research Get a Boost at WIPO

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | May 25, 2022 | Limitations and Exceptions, WIPO

[Terea Hackett] The 42nd session of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), the global forum that sets international copyright law and policy, took place in Geneva from 9 – 13 May 2022 – the first full meeting since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. EIFL was there to promote strong rights for libraries in support of access to knowledge for education, research and development. I was representing EIFL with Dick Kawooya, University of South Carolina, USA; Anthony Kakooza, Makerere University, Uganda; Desmond Oriakhogba, University of Venda, South Africa, and Awa Cissé Diouf, Universite Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Senegal.

EXCEPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS TO COPYRIGHT IN THE AGENDA AT SCCR 42 WIPO

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | May 24, 2022 | Limitations and Exceptions, Multilateral Fora, WIPO

[Deborah De Angelis] The SCCR42 took place in Geneva from May 9th to 13th, 2022, turning into an in-person meeting after the Covid pandemic, but with the possibility of remote participation as a “phygital” event… The SCCR42 agenda item 7 has been dedicated to limitations and exceptions to copyright, which has formed a core part of the agenda of the SCCR for at least 15 years. One of the goals achieved during the previous discussions is the Marrakesh Treaty in 2013 for the use of copyrighted works by people with blindness or visual impairments.

Re:Create Interview with Sean Flynn

Posted by InfoJustice Eds. | May 20, 2022 | Academic Resources, IP & Research, User Rights Network

[ReCreate] For our latest Copyright Corner Q&A series installment, Re:Create spoke with Sean Flynn, Director of the American University Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property. Flynn helps explain the meaning of “information justice,” the restrictions that continue to constrain research and education – even in today’s digital age – and how global IP laws impact access to the Covid vaccine. Flynn also helps readers better understand how the ability to make and use research materials is core to the freedom of expression and how copyright law can become an unjustifiable restriction without adequate exceptions.

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