Original news and analysis on international IP policy
One of the features of the multi-faceted United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization is its arbitration and mediation of disputes over internet domain names. At a conference at WIPO today, supporters and lawyers who use the system said it is working but suggested some further improvements and a fear of more new domains being introduced.
COPENHAGEN - A panel discussing the copyright challenges posed by social media at a recent conference in Iceland concluded that while new and stricter regulations as proposed in France may not be a bad idea, the best solution is to provide consumers with quality services for which they are willing to pay. Meanwhile, there are new developments at the European level.
The 2009 edition of the United Nations telecommunications agency annual summit opened its doors yesterday, bringing together government, industry leaders, and other stakeholders in a networking effort to address global challenges in the information society. Meanwhile, the head of the UN intellectual property agency took a shot at internet service providers and the need for stronger copyright protection.
Just days after the French Parliament adopted a bill aiming to protect literary and artistic intellectual property rights online on 25 September; the law is being challenged on constitutionality grounds.
A mere “affirmation of commitments” (AoC) between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the United States Department of Commerce has replaced the decade-old joint project agreement in place in different forms since ICANN started technical coordination of names and numbers on the net in 1998.
When Amazon.com remotely deleted George Orwell’s “1984" and “Animal Farm” from its Kindle e-books, it stirred up a hornet’s nest of complaints about privacy, the potential erosion of copyright users’ rights and censorship. Is the shift to “tethered devices” a real cause for concern or much ado about nothing?
With a day to go before the joint project agreement between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the United States Department of Commerce (DoC) is set to expire, calls for continuous US oversight role have been reiterated by US politicians and private-sector representatives who reason that this oversight is especially needed in the face of the planned introduction of new internet top-level domains like .shop.
As the United States is moving to ensure that internet (net) neutrality is preserved in that country, some are hoping other regions of the world will take notice, particularly the European Union.
Google’s court settlement in the United States that could allow the search engine giant to sell scanned books online is increasingly coming under fire prior to the final hearing in the matter next month. Government entities and groups in the United States and in Europe that oppose the settlement could, at the very least, temporarily derail Google Book Search, according to sources.
Stakeholders gathered this week to discuss a European approach to the governance of the internet in the lead-up to the next global forum on the issue.
The second European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) took place in Geneva on 14-15 September and brought together some 200 representatives.
Un site Internet proposant de la musique et des films en téléchargement illimité pour un prix dérisoire cherche à tirer profit d’une décision d’arbitrage prise en 2007 par l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) concernant un différend entre l’île antillaise d’Antigua-et-Barbuda et les États-Unis, par laquelle Antigua a reçu l’autorisation de suspendre certaines de ses obligations en matière de propriété intellectuelle vis-à-vis des États-Unis. Cette action soulève des questions concernant la mise en application des mesures de rétorsion croisée, qui permettent à un pays plaignant de trouver réparation dans un secteur différent de celui où le pays défendeur a commis une infraction.
The World Intellectual Property Organization this week may have witnessed the beginnings of a resumption of high-level negotiations on an international treaty on the protection of audiovisual performances.