Category Information and Communications Technology/ Broadcasting

“Innocence of Muslims” Creates Copyright Controversy In US

When “Innocence of Muslims” first appeared online, the video provoked outrage among millions of Muslims around the world. Now the consternation has spread to many copyright experts, internet firms, news organisations, and entertainment companies, who assert that a recent 9th Circuit decision about the movie makes a major change in US copyright law, with terrible consequences for the internet, media, and free speech. Others state that the ruling makes no change at all in US law.

UKIPO: New Exceptions In UK Copyright Law Boost Flexibility For Users

On 27 March, the United Kingdom introduced new exceptions to its Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 “to make our copyright system better suited to the digital age,” the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has said.

NTIA Seeks “Solid Proposal” On IANA Transition To Reassure US Stakeholders

Lawrence Strickling, the United States assistant secretary of Commerce, today called on the internet community to come up with a “solid proposal” for the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), from the US to a new multi-stakeholder oversight model. IANA is responsible for changes made to the internet domain name system.

UN Praises US Pullback Of Internet Control

The United Nations Secretary General and head of the UN International Telecommunication Union earlier this week applauded an announcement by the United States government that it plans to relinquish its remaining control over the internet domain name system.

Quantitative Analysis Of Contributions To NETMundial Meeting

A quantitative analysis of the 187 submissions to the April NETmundial conference on the future of internet governance shows broad support for improving security, ensuring respect for privacy, ensuring freedom of expression, and globalizing the IANA function, analyst Richard Hill writes.

WIPO Debate: Can – Or Should – Governments Own Their Country Names?

This week, Jamaica tabled a proposal at the World Intellectual Property Organization for a non-binding instrument that would provide a guideline on the protection of country names against misleading trademarks for intellectual property offices and trademark practitioners. The proposal was received with interest by some member states while others, like the United States and South Africa, raised strong concerns.

Rise Of Knowledge Societies Leads To New Social Conflicts, Book Says

The rise of knowledge societies leads to the emergence of new conflicts initiated by stakeholders who do not come from the closed world of intellectual property, but rather from the general civil society. This reflects the growing importance of IP in the international economy, says a recent book.

WIPO: Internet Domain Expansion Disruptive To Trademark Strategies

The UN World Intellectual Property Organization today announced its concern over the effect on trademark protection of the current launch of over 1,000 new internet domains by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Innovating To Help African Students Learn With Legal, Affordable Textbooks

An innovative South African start-up is offering local university students a way around buying cheap pirated books with a legal print-on-demand service that slashes the price of expensive academic textbooks.

US Claims Final Separation From Privileged Internet Oversight

The Obama administration has announced a decision to make a last step towards completing privatisation of internet core infrastructure oversight, namely the central root zone of the domain name system. But it is not clear what this will mean for international efforts to increase intergovernmental control over the internet.