In May 2009, at the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) 18th session, the governments of Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay formally tabled a proposal to WIPO endorsing the World Blind Union’s Treaty for Reading Disabled Persons.
KEI’s work on limitations and exceptions to the exclusive rights of copyright owners covers a wide range of issues, in many different fora. KEI has worked on reading disabilities, education, libraries, the relationship between copyright L&E and technical protection measures or DRM technologies, the scope of fair use, and rights of creative communities to reuse and re-purpose works, access to out of print or orphaned works, compulsory licensing of copyrighted works, the control of excessive pricing, and limits on the use of contracts that undermine user rights. Continue Reading
TACD has issued a resolution on copyright terms, and measures to mitigate the harm from excessive terms. The TACD Press release follows:
KEI has a page that summarizes the minimum terms of protection for copyright and related rights in multilateral treaties. The most binding constraints are those included in the WTO TRIPS Agreement. Those constraints are as follows:
Most literary and artistic works protected by copyright under the Berne would have a minimum copyright term calculated on the basis of the life of the author plus 50 years.
Over the past several weeks there have been a several cases where some well motivated and knowledgeable persons about copyright policy have expressed criticism of an effort by WIPO to negotiate a treaty for persons who are blind or have other reading disabilities, on the grounds that this is not ambitious enough, and a larger all inclusive treaty on limitations and exceptions should be the target.
TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue, Washington, DC.
The TACD conference on Patents, Copyrights and Knowledge Governance: the next fours years is going to be held on January 12-13th, 2009 in Washington, DC.
Venue: Carnegie Institution of Washington • 1530 P Street NW • Washington, DC 20005
The event is free and is now open for registrations on the TACD website: http://www.tacd.org/events/patents_2009.htm
KEI has filed comments on the EC’s Green Paper on Copyright limitations and exceptions. They are on the web here: https://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=215
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) divides its norm setting work among several committees. The 17th meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) met last week, and considered several topics, including the first in-depth effort to consider a work program on limitations and exceptions for copyright. This work program, first proposed formally by Chile (SCCR/13/5) among WIPO member states, is a work in progress. Continue Reading
These are the notes I used for my oral presentation today at the WIPO SCCR 17 discussion on copyright limitations and exceptions. Jamie
KEI supports the proposal by Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua and Uruguay for a SCCR work program on L&E, including information gathering, analysis and norm setting.
KEI supports the proposal for a survey on L&E.
In terms of studies, KEI agrees with CI that WIPO should undertake studies related to distance education and innovative services to complete the other WIPO studies.
KEI has filed comments on the EC’s Green Paper on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy. Here are pdf and odt copies. The html version follows below. Comments of Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) on the GREEN PAPER: Copyright in the Knowledge… Continue Reading