Category Information and Communications Technology/ Broadcasting

Internet Governance Forum Next Week: Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data On Agenda

The 12th annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum will open in Geneva next week. The United Nations entity, which presents itself as a free electron of internet governance, will host a large number of sessions addressing pressing issues of the digital world, including big data, cyber security, and artificial intelligence. Discussions held at the forum will enhance understanding of the broad issue of internet governance, and help hold actors accountable.

Copyright Skirmishes From The European Snippet War

A new European Union ancillary copyright provision for news publishers will help them against news aggregators and platform providers, promised proponents and two panellists favouring the addition of the EU Copyright Reform at a workshop of the Justice Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament in Brussels today (7 December). But it’s a promise that cannot be kept according to a study commissioned by the Parliament and also presented during a feisty discussion at the workshop.

Must All Foreigners Online Comply With US Copyright Law? (Part 2 of 2)

A case now before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, Spanski Enterprises v. Telewizja Polska, creates a legal dilemma. The court needs to find Telewizja liable for copyright infringement, or else the court will create a roadmap for pirates, enabling them to stream copyrighted works into the US with impunity. But if the court finds Telewizja committed infringement simply because the Polish company put online works that could be accessed in the US, the court will apply US copyright law in an extraterritorial manner that will create problems around the globe.

Must All Foreigners Online Comply With US Copyright Law? (Part 1 of 2)

US copyright law is supposed to apply only within US borders, not to actions done in Poland. But when a company in Poland streamed copyrighted TV shows into the US, that infringed US copyrights, according to a US trial court. This decision will be upheld on appeal, experts widely expect. Such an appellate decision, however, could expand the reach of US copyright law to a problematic extent. It will be tricky to find infringement in this case without also extending US copyright law to any online content posted anywhere on the globe.

Get Prepared For A Passel Of EU Legislation On Copyright And Related Rights

This week several committees in the European Parliament voted on a pile of copyright-related dossiers, and in some instances the steps taken were really small. But the issues include controversial aspects in the legislative drafts on copyright review, broadcasting content and digital content, such as an obligation for providers to monitor third party content, intermediary liability and website blocking.

WIPO Committee Debates Future Of Copyright Exceptions, Will Keep Working On Broadcasting Text

The World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee last week sent back to the drawing board draft action plans provided by the secretariat on exceptions and limitations to copyright for specific actors such as educational institutions and libraries. Meanwhile, discussions on the rights of broadcasting organisations against signal theft and piracy are expected to give way to a new text on specific topics, to be produced by the end of the month, while topics such as the resale right did not make it to standing agenda items but remain on list of items to be discussed in the spring.

Studies Presented At WIPO To Better Understand Limitations To Copyright

With no consensus on conducting normative work at the World Intellectual Property Organization on the limitations to copyright for certain actors such as persons with disabilities, educational institutions, and museums, the committee on copyright had agreed on several studies so the issues are better understood. This week, several of those studies were presented to the committee and shed some further light on the issues.

New Proposal At WIPO On Exceptions To Broadcasting Rights

While World Intellectual Property Organization delegates held informal closed consultations at the beginning of this week on a potential treaty protecting rights of broadcasting organisations from signal theft and piracy, a group of Latin American countries has proposed language on limitations and exceptions to these rights.