Knowledge Ecology International written intervention to the 18th Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) thanks the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) and the Chair, Jukka Liedes, for affording KEI the opportunity to present our written comments on the subject of the future work of this Committee.
KEI is pleased that the SCCR will consider the Proposal by Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay Relating to Limitations and Exceptions: Treaty Proposed by the World Blind Union (WBU), at the nineteenth session of the SCCR.
The SCCR should evaluate the proposal for a treaty for reading disabled persons, with the aim of bringing to the 2010 WIPO General Assembly a proposal for a diplomatic conference in 2011 on this topic.
To assist work on this project, KEI suggests that member states and the WIPO Secretariat provide more information to the SCCR about the current status of cross-border movement of accessible works that were created under copyright limitations and exceptions regimes, with particular emphasis on the legal mechanisms used and the extent of cross-border sharing of accessible works.
The WIPO SCCR should also pursue its work on the other elements of the limitations and exceptions agenda, including in particular to examine the topics of limitations and exceptions in the areas of education, distance education, libraries, innovative services and access to out of print or orphaned works.
In this regard, KEI suggests the SCCR consider a future information session on the topic of access to out of print and orphaned works, including sharing of national experiences on this topic, and a discussion of proposals to address the issue of orphaned works through limitations on the remedies for unauthorized uses of works, including through the flexibilities of Article 44.2 of the TRIPS.
KEI also suggests the WIPO SCCR consider two new agenda items. The first new agenda item should be the control of anticompetitive practices. The second agenda item should be the “evidence base and transparency of the copyright system.”
For the item, the control of anticompetitive practices, KEI would also suggest the WIPO Secretariat be asked to provide statistics to the SCCR on the concentration of ownership of publishing in the areas of recorded music, and books and software, broken down into relevant submarkets, and to have an information session on the national implementations of Article 40 of the TRIPS.
In the area of the evidence base and transparency of the copyright system, the SCCR should consider the needs of policy makers and stakeholders for more transparency of the economic aspects of the copyright system, in order to facilitate better policy making.