It is Tuesday, November 4, 2008, and the WIPO SCCR will hear from Judith Sullivan on copyright limitations and exceptions for the blind.
Judith Sullivan begins with a formal presentation of her February 2007 WIPO Study on Copyright Limitations and Exceptions for the Visually Impaired (SCCR/15/7). The presentation was quite good, and helpful, and followed the slides that WIPO has on its web page.
I’m in Geneva at WIPO for the 17th SCCR meeting. The first two days have presentations of four WIPO studies of copyright limitations and exceptions. Each study gets a half day. The first presentation was by Sam Ricketson.
WIPO Study on Limitations and Exceptions of Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Environment, (SCCR/9/7), April 5, 2003. prepared by Mr. Sam Ricketson, Professor of Law, University of Melbourne and Barrister, Victoria, Australia
The Ricketson presentation was very clear.
I have been asked to elaborate on the relationship between the Medical Innovation Prize Fund (S.2210, 110th Congress) and the WTO TRIPS Agreement.
For centuries, innovation inducement prizes have been suggested as a mechanism to stimulate investments in a wide range of topics. (See, for example, Selected Innovation Prizes and Reward Programs, KEI Research Note 2008:1). During most of this period, the patent system has also existed.
Larry Lessig has writen a blog post on the Google Books settlement. Lessig starts by saying “this is a good deal that could be the basis for something really fantastic,” and then elaborates, noting how important will be the governance of the new non-profit registry. At the end, Larry trashes the legislative proposal for an orphan works act:
Larry Lessig has writen a blog post on the Google Books settlement. Lessig starts by saying “this is a good deal that could be the basis for something really fantastic,” and then elaborates, noting how important will be the governance of the new non-profit registry. At the end, Larry trashes the legislative proposal for an orphan works act:
Siva Vaidhyanathan writes his initial reaction to the Google Book/publisher settlement. Among his conclusions:
According to the WSJ today PhRMA is spending $13.2 million in an “ad buy to prop up 28 Congressional candidates, many of them vulnerable and all but three of them Democrats.” The Journal points out
On October 28, 2008, Chris Friend of the World Blind Union sent a letter to WIPO DG Francis Gurry, with a proposal for a “WIPO treaty for Improved Access for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons.” The case for the treaty is explained in the WBU letter.
Additional information on this topic is available from the KEI web site here.
[img_assist|nid=147|title=James Love and Dr. Yusuf K. Hameid of CIPLA, at DNDi Geneva offices, September 2008|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427] Continue Reading