The WIPO SCCR 19 begins its work
This is day one of a five day meeting of the WIPO SCCR, being held in Geneva. The main topic of discussion this week will be copyright limitations and exceptions.
New Ad Hoc Observers for the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (Dec.14-18, 2009)
There will be new participants at the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (Nineteenth Session) Geneva, December 14 to 18, 2009.
Here is the lists of non-governmental organizations, which have requested to be granted observer status in sessions of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), according to SCCR’s Rules of Procedure (see document SCCR/1/2, paragraph 10).
- African Union of the Blind (AFUB)
- All India Confederation of the Blind (AICB)
- Asociación Civil Tiflonexos – Biblioteca Tiflolibros (Tiflolibros),
Writers Open Letter in Support of WIPO treaty for People who are Blind or have other Disabilities
We are distributing this letter (in English and Spanish, with Tiflolibros Argentina) to writers, journalists and authors who support the World Blind Union WIPO treaty proposal to improve access to books in formats accessible to people who are blind, visually impaired or have other disabilities. If you are a writer and you are interested in signing it, contact judit.rius@keionline.org
Wikileaks reports on IFPMA infiltration of WHO Expert Working Group on R&D Financing
On Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 10:42PM (EST), the site Wikileaks, posted this pithy entry on Twitter: “Big Pharma infiltrates WHO Expert Working Group process; WikiLeaks infiltrates Big Pharma“. Continue Reading
Dec 7, 2009 letter from Ambassador Kirk to Senator Sanders and Brown on ACTA transparency, says nothing new
On December 7, 2009, Ambassador Ron Kirk faxed a two page letter to Senator Bernie Sanders. (Page 1, Page 2). The letter made no concessions, and broke no new ground, as USTR continues to stonewall its critics on the transparency issue.
Kirk was responding to this November 23, 2009 letter from Senators Sanders and Brown to Kirk.
Eben Moglen’s neutron bomb therory of MySQL has some flaws
In a letter to the European Commission defending the Oracle acquisition of MySQL, Eben Moglen makes the following argument.
Transparency of FTAA negotiations, compared to ACTA
In a recent statement to Wired, USTR tried to justify the secrecy of the ACTA negotiations as follows:
The Administration also recognizes that confidentiality in international negotiations among sovereign entities is the standard practice to enable officials to engage in frank exchanges of views, positions, and specific negotiating proposals, and thereby facilitate the negotiation and compromise that are necessary to reach agreement on complex issues.
29 Reply comments in WIPO Treaty for Blind/Disabilities U.S. request for comment
http://www.copyright.gov/docs/sccr/comments/2009/reply-2/
Organization/Comment
1 Meredith Filak
2 Malini Aisola, Knowledge Ecology International, and Meredith Filak
3 Pablo Lecuona, Tiflolibro
4 Brad Huther, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
5 Dan Pescod, Royal National Institute of Blind People
6 Nirmita Narasimhan, Centre for Internet and Society
7 Margaret Chase, Radio Reading Service
8 Robert Martinengo, Center for Accessible Publishing
9 Steven M. Rothstein, Perkins School for the Blind
10 Harold Martin, WVTF Public Radio
Continue Reading
Seven Secret ACTA documents from 2008
A KEI FOIA request for these seven documents was denied on the grounds of national security. (Links to March 2009 news storied about this here). You decide if these seven documents present a risk to the national security of the United States, or if the White House has been misusing the national security exception to avoid a public debate on public policy issues relating to the enforcement of intellectual property rights:
Sign-on Letter for Amendment 2858 Ethical Pathway for Generic Pharmaceutical Products, 111th Congress
This sign-on letter has been closed
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has submitted the amendment 2858 to the health reform bill, to create an Ethical Pathway for the registration of generic medicines.
For background on the substance and rationale, I have a short blog describing the amendment here /node/707.