On June 29, while the OECD civil society group CSISAC (80+ NGOs) debated the text of a high level statement on the Principles of Internet Policy Making, I sent this missive to the group discussing the text, expressing KEI’s opposition to the draft statement. Continue Reading
KEI Statement on the Broadcast Treaty at WIPO SCCR 22
June 21, 2011
KEI opposes work at WIPO on a new treaty for broadcasting organizations.
To the extent that creative works are distributed through broadcasting networks, they are nearly always protected by copyright.
In the small cases where the broadcast involves material in the public domain, it would be a mistake to give the broadcaster an intellectual property right, merely for transmitting information.
I was asked recently to look at some data on employment in the copyright industry. This addresses one set of data points, the BLS estimates of US employment in the Sound Recording Industries.
Occupational Employment Statistics
NAICS 2-Digit Industry Specific Estimates, May 2010
51 Information 2,708,760
NAICS 3-Digit Industry Specific Estimates, May 2010
511 Publishing Industries, except Internet, 758,090, 28.0%
512 Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries, 371,450, 13.7%
515 Broadcasting (except internet), 292,010, 10.8%
517 Telecommunications, 909,780, 33.6%
Continue Reading
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has declared an intention to have all its proposals on intellectual property protections by the commencement of the next round of TPP talks in Vietnam June 20-24, 2011. On a fast timetable, TPP negotiators have already announced that they want to finalize TPP by the summit meetings of the members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation on November 8-13, 2011 in Hawaii. The TPP will impact health, access to knowledge, and without the necessary safeguards, the right to privacy.
In a major breakthrough on the WIPO negotiations on copyright exceptions for persons with disabilities, at around 1pm today, a non-paper “resulting from informal discussions among Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, the European Union and its Member States, Mexico, Paraguay and the United States of America” was distributed at the WIPO SCCR 22.
A copy of the document is available here:
/wp-content/uploads/text_distributed_friday_1pm.doc
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| Members of the WBU delegation at WIPO SCCR 22 |
June 16, 10 am: There are good news and less good news to report from Geneva. While overall, things have moved in positive directions, with the US and the EU engaged in very constructive negotiations with Brazil and other treaty sponsors, there are still many frustrations. Continue Reading
Asian Group’s Statement
22nd session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights
(15-24 June 2011)1. I have the honour to take the floor on behalf of the Asian Group.
SCCR22: Opening statement of the Development Agenda Group
Development Agenda Group’s Statement
22nd session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights
(15-24 June 2011)Mr. Chairman,
The USTR Special 301 Report, some initial reactions
The USTR Special 301 Report was issued today. The full report is here, the USTR web page on the report is here, and a link to the USTR press release about the report is here. Continue Reading
Senator Wyden releases redacted version of October 29, 2010 CRS report on ACTA
On April 26, 2011, Senator Wyden released a redacted version of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on ACTA that has been the subject to an ongoing Freedom of Information ACT (FOIA) dispute with USTR.
(More context here, here and here).
This is a link to the report that USTR claimed they could not release because of restrictions on its use by Senator Wyden.
/wp-content/uploads/RedactedACTACRSMemotoSenWyden.pdf