Category Access to Knowledge/ Education

WHO Guidelines May Help With Price Reductions For Hepatitis C Drugs

Guidelines for the treatment of hepatitis C released by the World Health Organization today recommend revolutionary new drugs for the virus. However, the exorbitant price of these drugs means they will remain out of reach for most of the millions infected. The WHO guidelines themselves offer limited recommendation for reducing prices, but may help in creating the conditions for price reduction by accruing demand and giving countries official backing in price negotiations.

Warning! You Are Being Watched.

The explosive growth of technology in recent years has given governments, intelligence agencies and big businesses, like Google and Facebook, monitoring tools to create a new empire of Big Brother. People have never been more scrutinised at any other time in human history than they are today. This naturally begs the question: does the right to privacy still exist?

EU Data Retention Directive Declared In Violation Of EU Law

European data retention has to be rolled back after a clear judgment of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice in Luxemburg today.

The highest EU Court ruled that the directive which obliges telecommunication providers to collect and store communication traffic and location data for up to 2 years, depending on the implementation in the member states, is invalid.

University Of Geneva Internet L@w Summer School In June

The University of Geneva is launching an Internet l@w summer school which will take place from June 16 to June 27, 2014.

The Internet l@w summer school offers the opportunity to learn and discuss internet law and policies with experts from leading institutions including the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, the Internet Society, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as from other prestigious academic or governmental institutions and global internet companies (eBay and Google).

Topics to be covered include privacy and surveillance, free speech, telecom and internet infrastructure, intellectual property, antitrust, choice of court & choice of law, on-line contracts, consumer protection, legal issues of social media and cloud computing.

The website of the Internet l@w summer school is: www.internetlaw-geneva.ch

Registration deadline: May 15, 2014 (early bird: April 15).

EU Wrestles With Procedure For Signing Marrakesh Treaty For Visually Impaired

The Committee of Permanent Representatives of the European Union recently approved a compromise proposal by the Greek presidency, setting up a decision on the EU Council’s signing later this month of the Marrakesh Treaty on access to books for blind and visually impaired persons. However, some EU members raised that the treaty lies within a shared competency between the EU and its member states.

TTIP: EU Commissioner Points Finger At US Secrecy, Investor-State Provisions

A number of problems with investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) were outlined by legal experts during a 1 April hearing in Brussels of the International Trade Committee (INTA) of the European Parliament in its last session before the European elections. And the European trade commissioner said he would agree to open the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks and to drop ISDS from the TTIP if the United States would agree.