Original news and analysis on international IP policy
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A letter from the United States government answering a variety of sticky questions about the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has been released online. The 28 January letter is addressed to Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat, Oregon) from US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
A treaty on copyright exceptions for visually impaired readers, open educational materials, use of the internet without surveillance, and early human rights movements around access to electricity were among issues debated at a recent academic conference on access to knowledge.
Brazilian President Lula has adopted a measure to enable the suspension of Brazil’s obligations to protect intellectual property rights from the United States, the next step after a World Trade Organization ruling of US non-compliance with WTO rules, according to an unofficial translation of the provisional Brazilian measure.
The United States’ largest industry association today laid out an aggressive legislative agenda on intellectual property, calling for a dramatic increase in enforcement activities including pumped up customs and border authority.
The chapter on copyright protection in the digital environment under negotiation in the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is still in an embryonic state, said negotiators coming back from the recent ACTA negotiations in Guadalajara, Mexico.
In its 2010 digital music report, the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said that despite the availability of 400 legitimate online music offerings worldwide and significantly higher 2009 revenues, the music sector remains hard-hit by peer-to-peer and emerging forms of copyright infringement.
Ensuring public access to knowledge while supporting intellectual property rights cuts across broad areas such as internet availability, public health, education and culture, climate change, and basic technical standards. And while the non-profit movement that has worked to encourage access is facing serious challenges this year, they are set to fight it out in the various fora related to essential drugs, books and academic journals, and software again in 2010.
Las culturas de los pueblos indígenas a menudo no se han tenido en cuenta en la elaboración de las normas mundiales de propiedad intelectual, según se afirma en un nuevo informe de las Naciones Unidas.
L’Accord commercial anti-contrefaçon (ACAC), objet de négociations secrètes, est aujourd’hui au centre des débats internationaux sur le droit d’auteur. Tel est aussi le cas d’un potentiel nouveau traité international sur l’accès pour les déficients visuels aux livres en ligne, qui…
The United States Department of Justice yesterday told the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that progress had been made on its concerns in the settlement allowing internet search giant Google to scan millions of books into a database. But the government lawyers continue to have doubts on copyright, class certification and antitrust issues, they said.
The secretly negotiated Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is now in centre stage in the global debates around copyright, as is a prospective new international treaty on access to online books for the visually impaired which comes as part of a broader push to clarify limitations and exceptions to copyright. But some are asking, why all the debate and new efforts in national and international copyright legislation when copyright is increasing being exchanged for contractual relationships?
Offering no details - as is their standard - government negotiators for a global anticounterfeiting treaty yesterday declared a commitment to try to find ways to increase transparency and inclusion of public input in the secretive talks. But they stopped short of actually committing to increasing transparency and inclusion.