A French bill to protect literary and artistic intellectual property rights on the internet passed the French Senate last night with 189 votes in favour over 142 votes against its adoption. A law creating a high-level authority for the protection of artistic works on the internet (with the French acronym HADOPI) passed in May (IPW, […]

The closely held date of the next negotiating meeting on the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) is 16-17 July in Morocco, according to an official source. The ACTA negotiation has roiled activists and others for being conducted mostly in secret with little non-industry public input. This is the first negotiating session on the US-led treaty since […]

One month after the French government’s so-called HADOPI law aimed at preventing online illegal downloading was partly censored by the French Constitutional Council, the government has continued its push and is presenting a new law restoring the punishing arm of the original law (IPW, Access to Knowledge, 16 June 2009). Frédéric Mitterrand, new French minister […]

World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan on Monday urged governments and others to incorporate a “moral dimension” into trade, finance, food security and public health as the world works to correct harm done by “greed” and right itself economically. “Crises like the food crisis, the financial crisis, climate change, and pandemic influenza will deepen […]

Journal articles by professors at the University of Kansas (US) will soon be freely available online, the school reported, as it becomes the first public university in the United States to embrace an “open access” policy. The university joins ranks with Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University, which have similar policies. […]

Alicia Greenidge, until recently director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), plans to launch a new platform in Geneva to “build relationships between developing countries, governments, organisations and industries,” according to a press release from IFPMA[pdf]. No other details about the new project appear to be available, and Greenidge did […]

The spectre of gastronomic imperfection has long haunted connoisseurs of the fine foods of regions in countries like France and Italy. But Canada has been less concerned about the protecting its homegrown flavours. This means the Canadians are powerless to prevent others from usurping the name of their Montreal bagels, reported Jeff Roberts of the […]

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has announced that it will revoke an illegitimate patent on internet subdomains that was seen as potentially threatening to the public domain. The US patent, held by a company called Hoshiko, claimed to cover the method of automatically assigning internet subdomains, like “action.eff.org” for the parent domain “eff.org.” […]