Attached below are the current proposals on the so called “Berne Gap.”
AF Group: Any Contracting Party which is not a member of the Berne Convention or other relevant international treaties shall ensure consistent with its own legal system and practices, that accessible format copies are not reproduced, distributed or made available to non-beneficiary persons.
This was just passed out upstairs. There is now a proposal on TPMs by Australia, Switzerland, Argentina, Ecuador, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Holy See, Japan, India, African Group, Guatemala, Bangladesh, China, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, to address TPMs with a single sentence, and it is quite good:
Proposal by Australia/Switzerland/Argentina/Ecuador/Canada/Chile/Brazil/Holy See/Japan/India/African Group/Guatemala/Bangladesh/China/Kenya/South Africa/Morocco
The “commercial availability” issue looked like a mess this evening, as delegates emerged from closed* negotiations to provide two pages of proposals for text for Article D(3), which was intended to be a single sentence. I am attaching the text here. Hard to say how this will end up. Now there is some bracketed text that “reasonable terms” will include “interoperability, time and other terms” which I assume also includes prices. Continue Reading
Today NGOs were given 3 minutes for an opening statement. This is the text I used. Jamie
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Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) is a non-profit organization concerned with human rights. KEI wishes the delegates luck on a successful outcome. We are grateful for the work by the Secretariat on this issue, from top to bottom.
We will discuss our concerns about the negotiations.
There is a disparity between the lofty language in this hall, and the efforts to narrow user rights taking place downstairs, in the closed meeting.
The following are four US Department of State cables discussing the status of Thailand as regards the USTR Special 301 review. KEI recently received the cables from the US Department of State in response to an earlier FOIA request.
The WTO TRIPS Council has just approved an extension of TRIPS Obligations for Least Developed Countries until July 1, 2021, a new eight year extension. The new extension comes with some restrictions, but provides more freedom than the previous extension, which had a widely criticized and now eliminated “no rollback” clause. The decision stops well short of what the LDCs had proposed.
Much of the April negotiations on the treaty for copyright exceptions for persons with disabilities was spent discussing the issue of countries that are not members of the WTO, or the Berne Convention, or countries classified by the UN as least developed countries (LDCs), and currently not bound by the TRIPS agreement provisions on copyright.
The agenda for the meeting is here: http://tacd-ip.org/archives/945
My slides are here.
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The drafting group has finished its work, and below is the “Final” text on the “Decisions Point” that will accompany the resolution on the CEWG work, it is very similar to the text from Friday, but stronger in some areas and perhaps not as good in some others. For example, on the topic of the finance mechanism, reference to “voluntary” has been eliminated.
Friday text: “demonstrate voluntary and sustainable financing mechanism.”
Saturday text: “propose and foster financing mechanisms including innovative, sustainable and pooled funding.”
