WHO has announced the names for the Expert Working Group on R&D financing
We don’t know everyone on the list, but for the people that we do know, we are generally impressed. The WHO seems to have created a body with considerable expertise and reputation, and included people who will consider new ideas. This seems like a very good start.
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
Two quick points about the WIPO press release for SCCR 17:
1. The press release does not mention the term “trans-border” (a reference to export and import), even though this was referred to in the context of L&E for distance education in the SCCR conclusions. Clearly the EU opposition to the New Zealand text on “application to the international exchange of materials in accessible formats” made an impression on the WIPO Secretariat.
WIPO has just released at 8:50 am, “draft conclusions of the SCCR.”
The section on limitations and exceptions was good in some areas, for example, when the committee “stressed the importance of the forthcoming study on exceptions and limitations for the benefit of educational activities, including distance education and the trans-border aspect therof, and that it should include developing and least developed countries.”
Below is the final agreed upon text for the SCCR 17 on the issue of access for persons with reading disabilities. There are four sentences, in one paragraph.
This morning at the WIPO SCCR 17, the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO) has passed out a statement on the promotion of accessible reading materials for the blind in a trusted environment. The European Commission has pushed this hard in their morning intervention.
Basically, IFRRO is seeking to stop consideration of the WBU proposal for a treaty. They want to WIPO to “launch a platform of stakeholder consultations to develop a roadmap for ensuring access for the blind and visually impaired.”
KEI supports work on copyright limitations and exceptions. Like many others, we think that access for disabled persons should be given priority. The World Blind Union (WBU) has petitioned WIPO consistently on this topic since 2002, at SCCR 7. It is time to address the human rights of disabled persons.
KEI asks the SCCR to remove the broadcasting treaty from the agenda until such time as there is greater consensus over the purpose of the treaty.
Pakistan, on behalf of the Asian Group, gave unequivocal support for the World Blind Union proposal for a WIPO Treaty for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons. The Asian Group does not include China and Japan but includes such countries as India, Iran, Pakistan, Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and South Korea.
Here is the Asian Group’s specific intervention on the World Blind Union proposal.
The representative from the government of Chile (on behalf of Chile, Nicaragua, Brazil and Uruguay) delivered this very powerful statement this afternoon at WIPO during the Seventeenth Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR).
Chile proposed that the WIPO secretariat distributes a questionnaire on copyright exceptions and limitations between all WIPO Member States in order to continue with the information gathering process. Chile remarked on the good experience with the APEC survey on exceptions and limitations.