This short note is about giving people the heads up about four upcoming USPTO public meetings relating to copyright policy making: re remixes, digital first sale and calibration of statutory damages. It is a good example of ONE US agency (PTO is within a Task Force) wisely seeking “additional input from the public in order for the Task Force to have a complete and thorough record upon which to make recommendations.” But this blog post is also about a really bad example: USTR.
We still do not have a public text and discussions re the TPPA nor the TTIP. And unlike for the PTO discussions I do not think we will ever see the “archives” of the negotiations.
Today more than ever, the total lack of transparency around the TPPA negotiations is out of step in the US …and everywhere (WTO or WIPO have better records!). Citizens and their elected representatives have the right and the obligations to know what is being decided before it is too late to do anything about it. The call for transparency has been loud and clear but for Froman’s USTR, the text is still only for a small group of negotiators and corporate advisors.
I took this picture while Ambassador Froman was talking at a Congressional Hearing on Obama’s Trade Policy Agenda on Thu, April 3, 2014. There was only one question on transparency and Froman of course side stepped it!
If one wanted to compare USTR and USPTO regarding transparency and how policies are made, Froman’s USTR would get 0 and Michelle Lee’s USPTO would get …a 10. I would encourage anyone to seek and find more details about PTO public meetings here (and to send us their notes from the meetings):
Notice of Public Meetings on Copyright Policy Topics (as Called for in the Department of Commerce Green Paper, Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy)
The four roundtables are scheduled to be held in:
(1) Nashville, TN on May 21, 2014,
(2) Cambridge, MA on June 25, 2014,
(3) Los Angeles, CA on July 29, 2014, and
(4) Berkeley, CA on July 30, 2014.All roundtables will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 5:00 p.m.
Requests to participate and observe are due three weeks in advance of each of the respective roundtables on the following dates, by 5:00 p.m. E.S.T.: (1) April 30, 2014 for the Nashville roundtable, (2) June 4, 2014 for the Cambridge roundtable, (3) July 8, 2014 for the Los Angeles roundtable, and (4) July 9, 2014 for the Berkeley roundtable.
The agendas and webcast information will be available a week before each of the roundtables on the Task Force Web site, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/Internetpolicytaskforce and the USPTO’s Web site, http://www.uspto.gov/ip/global/copyrights/index.jsp.
In the Green Paper on Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy (Green Paper), released on July 31, 2013, and in its subsequent request for public comments, 78 FR 61337 (October 3, 2013), the Task Force stated its intention to hold roundtable discussions on
(1) the legal framework for the creation of remixes;
(2) the relevance and scope of the first sale doctrine in the digital environment, and
(3) the appropriate calibration of statutory damages in the contexts of (i) individual file sharers and (ii) secondary liability for large-scale infringement.See Request for Public Comments and Notice of Public Meeting, 78 FR 61337-38 (Oct. 3, 2013), available at http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/ntia_pto_rfc_10032013.pdf.
An archive of the webcast of the public meeting is available at http://new.livestream.com/uspto/copyright, and a transcript is available at http://www.uspto.gov/ip/global/copyrights/121213-USPTO-Green_Paper_Hearing-Transcript.pdf. Copies of the comments received are available at http://www.uspto.gov/ip/global/copyrights/green_paper_public_comments.jsp.
The purpose of the planned roundtables is to seek additional input from the public in order for the Task Force to have a complete and thorough record upon which to make recommendations.
MORE HERE:
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/04/16/2014-08627/notice-of-public-meetings-on-copyright-policy-topics-as-called-for-in-the-department-of-commerce