Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Dozens of civil society organisations this week sent a letter urging European telecommunications regulators to preserve internet neutrality in their current negotiations about the future of the internet in Europe.
One controversial issue from early days of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) could come to final closure ten years later: the decoupling from US oversight of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which manages the central root zone for the domain name system. Meanwhile, the next round of new internet domains is being teed up, the head of the domain name system oversight body has said.
Infojustice.org reports: A draft report by the Australian Productivity Commission (APC) concludes that the current copyright law fails to properly balance the interests of copyright holders and users. It warns that “Australia’s copyright arrangements are weighed too heavily in favour of copyright owners, to the detriment of the long-term interests of both consumers and intermediate users.” The APC makes recommends changes to the law to address the imbalance, including “the introduction of a broad, principles-based fair use exception.”
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctor Without Borders) today announced a report detailing what it calls failings in the current system for developing new drugs in ways that all patients can afford and access, and providing proposed policy options for addressing the problems.
There's no better way to celebrate something than by doing the opposite of it. That seems to be the message of a leading publishing company. In a campaign today to hail the virtues of intellectual property, it appears to be hoping to gain goodwill - and possibly some sales - by removing intellectual property on its products.
The Medicines Patent Pool announced today that its current licensing agreement with ViiV Healthcare for a new antiretroviral drug will be extended to all lower middle-income countries.
The Council of Europe, the 47-member intergovernmental group based in Strasbourg, France, this week adopted an internet governance strategy for the next four years, putting particular emphasis on human rights and democracy online. The strategy includes a series of steps and actions.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today (30 March) issued its annual National Trade Estimate report pointing fingers at trading partners' practices it sees as barriers to US trade. And the treatment of intellectual property in countries like India is high on the list. But the report also goes to lengths to praise progress in countries too.
A number of internet and software industry in the United States have come out in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiated by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) last year.
The leaders of India and the European Council today in Brussels discussed a wide range of topics including intellectual property rights - including geographical indications - innovation, digital issues, and health and pharmaceuticals.