Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Civil society doesn’t see things from behind a window, but takes the lead in international policy negotiations to discuss issues that affect everyday life. At this week's World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee meeting, some of the observers took the floor to let delegates know their opinion on the crucial matter of an international treaty on broadcasting under negotiation.
The World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee is meeting this week with a top agenda item of sending a longstanding treaty on copyright for broadcasters to its final conclusion. Dozens of lobbyists, mainly from Europe and North America, are on hand to help.
PARIS -- In its thirteenth year, the UN-led Internet Governance Forum finally seems to be able to turn the tide and get much-needed attention from powerful governments. Opened by a UN Secretary General for the first time since its inception and receiving the accolade of French President Emmanuel Macron, the forum looks toward a brighter future. But how to work as a multistakeholder body remains experimental in many regards.
PARIS -- French President Emmanuel Macron today opened the 13th Internet Governance Forum (November 12-14) in Paris with a firework of requests to the IGF community and some bold ideas. The IGF after a decade should take on much more responsibility in the development of internet regulation, Macron demanded, and said he together with last year’s and next year’s hosts of the UN forum is collaborating on pushing for more formal results, The IGF according to Macron should become a part of the UN Secretary General‘s Office, Macron proposed, to illustrate the importance. His call for regulation was echoed at the event by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
A number of countries are voicing concerns about their country name being used by trademark applicants with no relation to the country, riding on the country's reputation or geographical relevance. They are also worried about their country name being used as an internet top-level domain name. Those are among the issues being discussed this week at the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on trademarks, along with questions on the protection of geographical indications, and of icons and typeface on the internet.
A new directive adopted today by European Union member governments updates and strengthens regulations on video-sharing platforms and other newer forms of media, emphasising the public interest, elevating protections for children, and establishing a 30 percent quota of European content in on-demand audiovisual media services.
Houlin Chao of China has been re-elected secretary-general of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, with Malcolm Johnson of the United Kingdom re-elected as deputy secretary-general. Chao ran unopposed and received 176 votes, while Johnson defeated an opponent by garnering 113 votes. And in one of several other posts, ITU hailed the election of the first woman to a leadership position in the agency's 153-year history.
French advocacy group La Quadrature du Net has declared recent French government plans to regulate internet hate speech insufficient, and is calling for more in-depth reforms. These could include the promotion of alternative social media platforms and a decentralised approach to regulation, according to an organisation press release.
Donald Trump is no fan of international norms or rules. He’s made this clear on numerous occasions, including during his two speeches at the United Nations. It is surprising, therefore, that one of the few international deals he has made as president – the recently announced treaty replacing NAFTA – contains IP provisions whose main purposes seem to be extending US rules overseas and establishing IP norms for future international agreements.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has lifted the stop on delegating the .amazon top-level domain, effectively handing it to the company over the South American region, depending on agreement with states in the Amazon region.
BARCELONA, Spain -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is struggling over Europe's privacy legislation. Is there a data “war” in the making? It is exactly 20 years since the founding of ICANN and two years after being finally fully privatized, and the self-regulatory internet domain name body has been named a “practical peace project underway” by its President and CEO Göran Marby. But it is now struggling with an old issue: privacy and access to personal information in the Whois database.
The Music Modernization Act, legislation that will transform the music licensing framework in the United States, was signed into law by President Donald Trump during a ceremony at the White House on 11 October that included several artists such as Sam Moore from Sam & Dave, Kid Rock, Mike Love of the Beach Boys and Jeff Baxter of the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, among others.