WHO at a crossroads on a mandate for an R&D Treaty

21 May 2009

Today at the World Health Assembly (WHA) the US and EU are opposing that the WHO have a mandate on global research and development norms, including the possibility for Member States to negotiate at WHO a global biomedical R&D treaty.

Developing countries governments made very strong interventions this morning on this issue (among them India, Bolivia, Barbados, Suriname, Bangladesh, Ghana, Argentina, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Cuba and Jamaica) and are wondering where are the promises of multilateralism made by the new Obama administration.

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Soundproof books

I spent a few minutes today on Amazon, to check on reports that some Kindle titles now have text to speech disabled. Among the authors who are “turning off” text to speech in Kindle editions of books are President Obama, Vice President Biden, Toni Morrison, the Pope, Stephen King, Maya Angelou, Mother Teresa, Isaac Asimov, Tom Brokaw, P.D. James, Robert B. Reich, George Will and Ann Coulter, to mention a few.

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GRULAC recommendations to Working Group to the PCT Assembly

Today is day four of the second session of the International Patent Cooperation Union (PCT) Working Group of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) taking place at WIPO. Here below are the suggestions of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Member States (GRULAC) would like to be incorporated into the recommendation of the Working Group to the PCT Assembly.The Members of GRULAC that are contracting-parties to the PCT Treaty suggest the addition of the following elements into the recommendation of the Working Group to the PCT Assembly.

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Microsoft: What can go wrong

MICROSOFT CORPORATION, FORM 10-Q For the Quarter Ended March 31, 2009

Item 1A. Risk Factors
Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described below, that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, and the trading price of our common stock.

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DMCA rulemaking and current proposed exemptions

Every three years, the Library of Congress solicits public proposals for new (and renewable existing) exemptions from the anti-circumvention provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. On May 1, and May 6-8, the Library of Congress’s Copyright Office will hold its triennial rulemaking session on the anti-circumvention provision of the DMCA, where they will host panel discussions on the 2009 proposed exemptions.

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Peter Brantley on the Google Books Settlement

On April 9, 2009, Peter Brantley from the Internet Archive gave a talk at KEI on the proposed “Google Book Search Copyright Class Action Settlement.” The following are my rough notes from the presentation.

Peter has been a director of the Internet Archive (IA) for about three weeks. He was accompanied by Will Rodger, a Managing Director of the Law Media Group (LMG), a firm that represents Microsoft and the IA on the Google Books settlement. Attending the event were the following persons:

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