Digital Rights Network

The British Academy has just published its report on "Copyright and research in the humanities and social sciences". They find a variety of problems (detailed below) and also provide an extensive set of recommendations (see the Executive Summary linked from the main report page.

The findings of the Review

* Copyright law generally provides exemptions for fair dealing for private study and non-commercial research, and for purposes of criticism and review. These exemptions should normally be sufficient for academic and scholarly use.

* The problems lie in narrow interpretation, both by rights holders and by publishers of new works which refer to existing copyright material. These problems are acute in some subjects, particularly music, and history and film studies.

* Copyright holders have become more sensitive in defence of their rights, as a result of the development of new media, and are more aggressive in seeking to maximise revenue from the rights, even if the legal basis of their claims is weak.

* Risk averse publishers, who are often themselves rights holders, demand that unnecessary permissions be obtained, and such permissions are often refused or granted on unreasonable terms.

* There is an absence of case law, because the financial stakes involved in each individual case are small relative to the costs of litigation.

* Publishers and authors are very uncertain as to the true position and misapprehensions are widespread.

* There are well-founded concerns that new database rights and the development of digital rights management systems (DRMs) may enable rights holders to circumvent the effects of the copyright exemptions designed to facilitate research and scholarship.

Statement Concerning The WIPO Broadcast Treaty Provided By Certain Information Technology, Consumer Electronics And Telecommunications Industry Representatives, Public Interest Organizations, And Performers' Representatives

Released: 2006-09-05

The undersigned represent a broad and diverse group, united in a common belief that the WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations, as currently drafted, would harm important economic and public policy interests. This Statement offers comments on several key aspects of the treaty.

Manon Ress writes to the a2k list: In their answer to TACD re broadcasting treaty, the EC explains that the proposed treaty cannot depart from a previous treaty (Rome). This despite the fact that the US and many other countries have never signed!. Protection can only go up. Exceptions can only be narrow and optional.

QUOTE:
To that extent, the EU cannot agree with the TACD demands since it would not reflect the current level of protection that is already accorded to broadcasters in the Community copyright acquis and would have the effect of diluting that protection. Nor would it be feasible within the context of international negotiations for a new treaty updating the rights of broadcasting organisations in the intellectual property context under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organisations to depart from the substantive norms of previous treaties [i.e. protection cannot go down]. This is what the Brazilian and Argentinean proposals envisage, namely the provision of mandatory rights for users. This would be contrary to all previous relevant Treaties in this area. The traditional approach in this area and the one which reflects EU law as well is to introduce optional exceptions for certain users such as the disabled or for teaching and research purposes. [emphasis added]
END OF QUOTE

The European Commission's DG Enterprise section as part of their 2006 work programme in the area of Technology for Innovation/INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIES and E-business are looking at ICT Standardization: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/standards/ict_index_en.htm

Full details of the ICT Standardization Work progamme are in this pdf: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/standards/wp2006.pdf which contains the following section referencing to DRM (p.11):

7. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND COUNTERFEITING

Action 31: Further to the standardisation work already initiated, additional efforts are required with regard to interoperability of different DRM systems. Although Directive 2001/29/EC limits itself, inter alias, to the legal framework applicable to technological protection measures, these provisions can only deliver their intended effect if user- friendly, reliable and interoperable DRM systems are available to the creative industries. In this context, a follow-up of already achieved standardisation work should be considered with a focus on particular markets such as current and next generation consumer electronics, including DVB-Content Protection & Copy Management (DVB-CPCM), as well as mobile handheld devices, including their interoperability with computer and consumer electronic devices. [emphasis added]

what: WIPO Seminar on Broadcasting Treaty (sponsored by Broadcasters)
url: http://www.wipo.int/edocs/prdocs/en/2006/wipo_ma_2006_23.html
registration: http://www. wipo.int/copyright
when: 2006-06-21 (21st June)
where: Barcelona

From http://www.wipo.int/edocs/prdocs/en/2006/wipo_ma_2006_23.html

BARCELONA SEMINAR TO DISCUSS BROADCASTING ISSUES

International experts, business leaders, academics, government delegates and policy makers will come together on June 21, 2006, in Barcelona, under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Catalan Broadcasting Council and the Barcelona Bar Association, to examine current technical, economic and legal realities in the field of broadcasting and identify areas for development.

I was impressed by the radical design principles espoused in this article about fuel-cell vehicles, and heartened when I reached the end to see it was an example of open-source principles being harnessed to power the green revolution. And all reported in the Daily Telegraph...

subject: copyright levies and private copy exception
url: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/levy_reform/index_en.htm
start: 2006-06-06 (6th June)
end: 2006-07-14 (14th July)

From the Website

Copyright levy reform

Copyright levy reform is included in the Commission Work Program for 2006. In October 2004, the Commission consulted Member States on the scope of the private copying exception and existing systems of remuneration. Replies from Member States were due by March 2005. Where relevant, Member States were asked to update their replies and return them by January 2006. Member States have authorised the publication of these replies. Some Member States are still updating the replies submitted in 2005 and once these are received, these replies will also be published.

Stakeholder Consultation

The attached questionnaire on "Copyright levies in a converging world" is submitted for public consultation to ensure that later Commission proposals are technically viable, practically workable and based on a bottom-up approach. Stakeholders and Member States already provided valuable input in the process and this additional follow-up consultation serves the dual purpose to help to further improve the quality of the policy outcome and at the same time enhancing the involvement of interested parties and the public at large. This additional follow-up consultation period will run from 6 June through 14 July 2006. (Questionnaire PDF - http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/docs/levy_reform/stakeholder_consultation_en.pdf)

deadline: 2006-08-21
email: innovation@patent.gov.uk
url: http://www.patent.gov.uk/about/consultations/support/

From the UKPO Site

Introduction

1. The Patent Office has been considering how it can deploy its considerable knowledge, resources and expertise to support innovation in the UK beyond our existing support activities and core statutory functions of granting IP rights, serving as a tribunal and providing advice on IP policy to Ministers. To this end, we have prepared a strategy for supporting innovation which is the subject of this consultation. Annex 1, describes how the Office intends contributing to the Government’s innovation support agenda by building on its existing support activities and pursuing new initiatives.

From the Register:

"Qualcomm has brought the patent infringement allegations it has made against mobile phone giant Nokia to the UK. The US company has asked the English High Court to ban certain Nokia products and to force the Finnish firm to cough up damages."

"Qualcomm's complaint cites two UK patents that Nokia is alleged to have infringed - rather less than the 12 US patents the company alleges Nokia has infringed Stateside. Qualcomm launched legal proceedings against Nokia in the San Diego District Court in November 2005."

Here we are in Day 5 of the 14th SCCR (Standing Committee on Copyright and Releated Rights) meeting at WIPO which is entirely dedicated to discussing the broadcast treaty (Jamie Love has recently posted an article at the huffington post which provides good simple summary of the situation written in his typical combative and engaging style).

At present it doesn't look like NGOs will get a chance to speak as further discussion of webcasting (in addition to that on wednesday) ended up taking up much of the morning. Last night the committee worked late (until 2230) in an attempt to get through the remaining issues related to the core treaty (definition of terms, rights provided, national treatment, limitations and exceptions and TPMs).