The Queensland University of Technology has launched the Open Access to Knowledge Law Project. The project sounds like an exciting initiative as it will develop legal protocols for managing copyright issues in an open access environment and investigate provision and implementation of a rights expression language for implementing such protocols […]
Fair Dealing by Giulia Forsythe (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/dRkXwP
Copyright
Music and the Market
In case you missed it, last week CRIA was back in the news claiming that Canadian copyright law is in need of reform, arguing that Canadian digital download sales have not met expectations. The copyright lobby group chose to focus on sales of Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl. In the U.S., the song has become the first to reach one million paid downloads. By comparison, in Canada it has hit 20,000 paid downloads. CRIA argues that based on population and broadband penetration rates, the Canadian figure should be 150,000.
I find this argument rather remarkable. CRIA is obviously hoping to convince Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda and Industry Minister Maxime Bernier that the Canadian digital music market has been hurt by the absence of anti-circumvention legislation, yet the notion that music sales are a function of population size and broadband access is certainly subject to challenge.
Access Copyright And Creative Commons Canada Launch Public Domain Registry
Exciting news today from Access Copyright and Creative Commons Canada as the two are joining forces to establish a public domain registry. The registry should assist in identifying works in the public domain in Canada and will be further supported by the Wikimedia Foundation to allow individuals to contribute to […]
Australian Parliamentary TPM Report Accepts User Concerns
Kim Weatherall provides a quick summary of what is an exceptionally important Australian parliamentary report on TPM provision implementation. The report includes 37 recommendations with a long list of protections. Kim points to coverage of region coding (specifically excluded as TPM), linking access controls to copyright, and exceptions when the […]
IP Trade Pressure
Jamie Love has an interesting posting on USTR head Bob Portman violating U.S. law by pressuring African countries to increase protections for AIDS medicines that exceed WTO minimums. Expect those pressures to shift north once a Canadian copyright reform bill makes an appearance.
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