Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Cypto-guru Bruce Schneier, who has analysed thousands of documents provided by Edward Snowden on the secret surveillance programmes of the US National Security Agency, has called on the technical community to add encryption to the network and also come up with a new model for internet governance.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has announced a workshop in Ukraine next year aimed at fighting counterfeit technology products, representing a notable foray into intellectual property rights protection by the UN agency.
Away from traditional free trade agreement negotiations with secret chapters on stricter intellectual property protection, perceptions are slowly evolving about the need to make IP systems work better. One of 100+ sessions at the 8th United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Bali, Indonesia last week featured “intellectual property exchanges” as marketplaces for knowledge. But IP policy did not take centre stage and neither did other access topics in Bali, which instead was overshadowed by the recent revelations of mass surveillance by US intelligence services.
The revelations of mass surveillance by the US and other intelligence services are expected to considerably influence the 8th Internet Governance Forum in Bali, Indonesia this week.
A new study of 12 leading international standard-setting organisations (SSOs) found a high degree of inconsistency and lack of clarity when it comes to intellectual property rights and licensing. The study also includes analyses on how standards policies are evolving in Brazil, China and India.
Mutual understanding between the international trade community and internet stakeholders would be of great benefit to help adjust the multilateral trade regime to the rapidly changing landscape of the digital economy.
The UN International Telecommunication Union today released global statistics on information and communications technology, showing great advances in speed, reach and mobile connectivity, but with the reality that billions of humans are still not connected to the internet.
Former US National Security Agency and British MI5 employees urged the European Parliament yesterday to push for better better democratic oversight over secret services and better protection of whistleblowers. Nothing less than the sovereignty of states and of citizens are at stake, warned former NSA official Thomas Drake.
A coalition of civil society organisations yesterday officially launched a set of 13 principles on the application of human rights to communication surveillance during a side event at the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The process of opening up data from the public and private sectors has achieved relevant success in recent years, but many challenges are still to be overcome to make data really accessible and usable by the public. These were the main ideas that emerged from a meeting of open knowledge experts in Geneva yesterday.
Experts from all over the world are gathered this week in Switzerland to discuss open data initiatives, trends and future developments in the context of the 2013 Open Knowledge Conference, an annual event organised by the Open Knowledge Foundation.
Microsoft has claimed victory in its high-profile trial asserting that phone maker Motorola failed to licence its standard-essential patents under internationally recognised fair and reasonable terms. And the hand-marked jury card from the outcome in federal court in Seattle, Washington shows the unanimous decision.