US Copyright Office 17 priorities

Register of Copyrights Maria A. Pallante has made public the “priorities and special projects” of the US Copyright Office from October 2011 to October 2013. The ambitious work plan sets 17 priorities in the areas of copyright policy and administrative practices, and 10 special projects “to improve the quality and efficiency of the U.S. Copyright Office’s services.”

The 16 page document is available here
Comments should be sent to registerofcopyrights@copyright.gov

Here’s a quick outline:

3 Studies

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Senators Harkin and Sanders send Letter to USPTO Supporting the Treaty on Copyright Exceptions for Blind and Visually Impaired

harkin-sanders.jpgToday, on the eve of discussions on the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) at the WIPO General Assembly, Senators Harkin (D-IA) and Sanders (I-VT) submitted a letter to Director David Kappos of the US Patent and Trademark Office. This letter recommended USPTO’s support for the timely consideration of a treaty for the benefit of persons who are visually impaired or have other disabilities. Continue Reading

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SCO loses appeal in dispute with Novell over copyright claims to code used in Linux operating system

As reported by Groklaw, SCO has lost an appeal, at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a dispute with Novell “over copyright ownership of early versions of the UNIX operating system and the scope of Novell’s rights in licenses issued to its former customers prior to its partial sale of UNIX to SCO.” According to Groklaw, this is likely to be the end of the litigation with Novell over SCO’s claims to ownership of code used in Linux. (The IBM case is still outstanding, it seems).

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USTR New Exclusive Right for Copyright Holders: Importation Provision in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)

At the recently completed Vietnam round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), once again, no official text of negotiation was released. Therefore, we still need to speculate about its status, relying in part on a three-month-ago leaked version of the intellectual property chapter proposed by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

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SCCR22: Brazilian interventions in favor of a Treaty on exceptions and limitations to copyright for persons with disabilities

Mr Chairman,

It is with much pleasure that Brazil notes that we started this second week of the XXII SCCR with a text on the table that is co-sponsored by Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, México, Paraguay, and the United States and that is also supported by the EU.

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Opening statement of Uruguay at WIPO’s 22nd Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights

Comité Permanente de Derechos de Autor y Conexos – SCCR 22 – OMPI – Ginebra
Intervención de la Delegación de Uruguay. Ginebra, 15 de junio de 2011.

Gracias Señor Presidente,

Señor Presidente, reciba de nuestra delegación nuestras mas sinceras felicitaciones por su designación como Presidente del Comité Permanente de Derechos de Autor y Conexos SCCR y cuente con nuestro apoyo para hacer una exitosa gestión al frente de este importante comité.

Señor Presidente:

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15 April European Union proposal: 3 to 5 year delay in negotiations on a copyright treaty for blind persons

Attached is a PDF of the proposal by the European Union that was presented at the April 15, 2011 informals in Geneva, held at the US Embassy. The European Union now proposes that WIPO adopt a soft non-binding recommendation on cross border sharing of accessible works, and then monitor progress on the issue for 3 to 5 years. Continue Reading

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