South Africa Draft Policy on Intellectual Property rejects giving ownership interest in copyrighted works to broadcasters

On 4 September 2013, the Department of Trade and Industry (the DTI) of the Republic of South Africa released its long-awaited “Draft National Policy on Intellectual Property“. This policy framework was gazetted in the Government Gazette as Vol. 579, No. 36816. Public comments will be accepted until 17 October 2013.

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KEI statement on the Marrakesh agreement on copyright exceptions for blind persons

We are very happy with the agreement. There were a few areas where the treaty could have been better, but these are areas of minor quibbles. The first order issues all went in favor of blind persons. The treaty will provide a dramatic and massive improvement in access to reading materials for persons in common languages, such as English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Arabic, and it will provide the building blocks for global libraries to service blind persons. Continue Reading

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Why do US and EU trade negotiators hate the Berne Copyright Limitations and Exceptions?

For the past year, a treaty on copyright exceptions for persons who are blind or have other disabilities has been hung up on demands by the European Union to insert provocative language on the so called “three step test” in copyright into the treaty. The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is in the middle of a similar dispute, with the US pushing language that would place the three step test on top of all copyright limitations and exceptions, including those set out a particular cases in the Berne Convention. Continue Reading

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