Both Sides Of US Copyright Wars Reloading For 2011 20/12/2010 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Two sides of the ongoing struggle to balance stronger copyright protection and access to knowledge in the United States are re-arming themselves for battle in 2011. By the looks of it, it could be a litigious New Year.
Calls At UN For An International Body To Prevent Internet Control 15/12/2010 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments Opinions were divided in a United Nations consultation yesterday in New York on enhanced cooperation of public policy issues pertaining to the internet, whether two bodies on the issue are needed.
What If There Were An Application For Dot Wikileaks? 09/12/2010 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 5 Comments What would happen if the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) received an application for a .wikileaks top level domain name (TLD) next year, under its new system of opening up the internet for domains? It could make an interesting example of how well the complex system to apply for new TLDs works and how much political intervention is possible in the system. At the 39th ICANN meeting in Cartagena, Colombia this week, the self-regulatory body is trying to finalise issues in the published Final Applicant Guidebook – and it is governments and trademark owners that are calling for more time and more procedures.
The Next Internet Revolution Will Not Be In English: New Multilingual URLs 03/12/2010 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment This year marks the first time a website address may exist fully in Chinese, Russian, Arabic, or other non-Latin scripts. Ten years from now, the percentage of English content could easily drop below 25 percent. But there are still obstacles to this linguistically local revolution, writes John Yunker.
Should WIPO Lead Creation Of A Global Repertoire Database? 22/11/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch and William New 2 Comments To solve many of the dilemmas facing copyright holders in the digital age, some say the World Intellectual Property Organization must create and administer an international repertoire database, compiling information about who owns what rights related to specific artistic works.
Global Copyright Licensing Doubts And What To Do About Them 22/11/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch and William New Leave a Comment What do the fearsome leader of France’s three-strikes agency, a top Microsoft counsel, Google’s copyright counsel, a free software activist, Egyptian and British librarians, a South American development-oriented academic, and a European music authors’ representative have in common? While one might be tempted to say, ‘very little’, a recent gathering showed one thing – they represent the very wide range of current views on the future of copyright licensing.
WIPO Copyright Committee Agrees To Extra Time On Visually Impaired Access 15/11/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments The World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee has reached an eleventh-hour agreement on a work programme that could help ease access to reading materials for the visually impaired.
WIPO Copyright Committee In Fight To Overcome Differences On Exceptions, Limitations 12/11/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments On the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on copyright’s final day of weeklong negotiations, the hopes of visually impaired readers and others – librarians, schools – looking for an agreement on copyright exceptions and limitations hang on whether delegates can resolve differences and create a plan for future work.
Global Copyright Reform — A View From The South In Response To Lessig 12/11/2010 by Intellectual Property Watch 7 Comments “Given that global copyright rules have acquired such a pervasive impact in many facets of our lives, their reform needs to take place through an open, inclusive and participatory consultation process where ‘all of us’ have a say,” writes Ahmed Abdel Latif.
Panellists: Copyright Law’s ‘Byzantine Maze’ Stalling New Business Models 09/11/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments While piracy remains an oft-cited problem for the creative content industry, it is the ‘Byzantine maze’ of copyright law that is stalling monetisation of new business models better designed to deliver content in the digital age, panellists at the World Intellectual Property Organization said last week.