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.
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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.
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
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Ambassador Kirk: People would be “walking away from the table” if the ACTA text is made public
After attending the three day WTO Ministerial meeting in Geneva, I took the non-stop United Airlines Flight back to Washington, DC. On the airplane were a number of U.S. government officials including the head of USTR, Ambassador Ron Kirk. I had a chance to talk to Kirk about the secrecy of the ACTA agreement. He said the ACTA text would be made public, “when it is finished.” I told him it that was too late, and the public wanted the text out now, before it is too late to influence anything.
Senators Sanders and Brown ask White House to make ACTA text public
Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have written to USTR, asking that the ACTA text be made public. The strongly worded letter was sent to Ambassador Ron Kirk, the head of the United States Trade Representative, an office of the White House.
The letter states:
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UNDP ranks the U.S. 26ths in term of life expectancy at birth
As the U.S. considers health reform legislation, it is useful to review how countries rank in terms of life expectancy at birth.
From the 2009 UNDP Human Development Report statistical appendix: