Union for the Public Domain

Civil society NGOs are up in arms over WIPO's recent announcement that WIPO will not allow "ad hoc" observers to participate in the upcoming meetings on the development agenda. Union for the Public Domain and several other groups have relied on ad hoc accreditation in order to stand up for the public domain, advise countries, and transmit notes on negotiations over the WIPO Broadcasters' Treaty.

More on this at LawMeme and Copyfight...

The Union for the Public Domain board has passed a resolution in support of Downhill Battle's campaign to organize screenings of the U.S. civil rights documentary, "Eyes on the Prize":

UPD BOARD RESOLUTION

Whereas, the award-winning US documentary film series "Eyes on the Prize" on the US civil rights movement -- called "the principal film account of the most important American social movement of the 20th century" by one expert -- has not been available for public viewing for the past 10 years;

Whereas, copyright laws and related licensing restrictions have been the
chief barrier to this lack of access,

Whereas, "Eyes on the Prize" will be screened over the Internet and in
public showings across the US as part of Black History Month (February),
despite the objections of various corporations and others that hold copyrights on songs and historic footage that appear in the documentary; the documentary maker is deceased.

We, the board of the Union for the Public Domain,

(1) endorse the work of the group "Downhill Battle" in organizing these screenings and making this important documentary available to the public, and

(2) call upon national governments to implement specific limitations to copyright that permit such works to be shown, when the social, cultural, educational or developmental benefit of a use outweigh the costs imposed by it on private parties.

For more info contact updinfo at public-domain dot org

See Downhill Battle for more background,

Slashdot reports:

tetraminoe writes "Reuters is reporting that Congress's latest spending bill provides for the creation of a federal copyright enforcement czar. According to the article, 'Under the program, the president can appoint a copyright law enforcement officer whose job is to coordinate law enforcement efforts aimed at stopping international copyright infringement and to oversee a federal umbrella agency responsible for administering intellectual property law.' It also gives $2 million to the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council (NIPLAC), created in the '90s and never funded. NIPLAC will work to protect American IP overseas and oversee enforcement."

From Eric Hellweg at Technology Review:

Is 'Fair Use' in Peril?

...

Do you like fast-forwarding through commercials on a television
program you've recorded? How much do you like it? Enough to go to
jail if you're caught doing it? If a new copyright and
intellectual property omnibus bill sitting on Congress's desk
passes, that may be the choice you'll face.

[more after the break]

It was an amazing three days at the World Intellectual Property Organisation, with a strong push at the very end for transparent procedure at WIPO. The main outcomes were:

Chile successfully added an agenda item to the next meeting of the committee, to address the rights of users to access and use knowledge.

UPDATE: Notes on the proceedings from all three days are now posted at http://www.public-domain.org/?q=node/view/66

Many of you will remember the broadcasting industry's efforts to push a power-grabbing treaty through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). If the broadcasters have their way, the treaty will:

• Give broadcasters copyright privileges over material they did not create, but merely broadcast, including control over public domain material. They would get these powers for up to 50 years.
• Make it illegal to circumvent technology locks that enforce broadcasters' control over what users can do with broadcasts.

And if a small group of webcasters gets their way, they'll get these powers too.

In the last session the pro-treaty forces were pushing to move to the final stages of negotiation, while the developing countries in opposition were trying to slow down the process to get rid of the most odious positions.

The round of negotiations this week is more of the same, except that now there are even more civil society NGOs in attendance and WIPO recently welcomed a "Development Agenda" that explicitly acknowledges the need for these treaties to promote access to the public domain, not inhibit it. On the other side, the webcasters are making an extra hard push, and there still isn't a great deal of transparency and media coverage to keep the dogs at bay.

Stay tuned. Union for the Public Domain has two people here to make the arguments for the public domain, and we'll be posting daily updates to the UPD site (http://public-domain.org), including detailed notes on everything that happens in the assembly hall. In the meantime, don't hesitate to contact your country's copyright office to urge them to take a stand against this treaty.

(For more details on the treaty, see: http://www.public-domain.org/node/view/47)

The New Scientist is reporting that the UK government has not taken up the tentative recommendation from a group of MP's to favour open-access publishing. Naturally, the traditional publishing industry is quite happy.

However, Stevan Harnad, an open access pioneer in the UK, reports that the UK Research Councils are free to require that the scientists self-archive their publications so that all potential readers can access them.

EWeek reports that a recent note to the IETF Intellectual Property Rights Working Group suggests that Microsoft is claiming rights over several protocols that run the Internet, including TCP/IP v4 and TCP/IP v6.

This strategy is in line with Microsoft's announcement this summer that it would seek to increase its patent portfolio, without necessarily increasing its rate of innovation.

The new reporting service, IP Watch has a nice summary story on what's happened so far with the Broadcast Treaty, and what's about to happen.

After a short hiatus, we're back with some good news for the public domain:

A European indie music label [!K7] is taking an unusual approach to the issue of CD copy protection - it is branding all its releases with a sticker proclaiming the absence of any such control measure.... "Copy protection kills customer relationships," the label says on its website. "That's why, from now on, !K7 releases will carry a new logo: 'NO copy protection - respect the music."... The company believes it's all a matter of trust. "Only those to whom respect is given show respect themselves," it notes. In other words, treat your customers as potential pirates and they'll soon tell you to f**k off and not buy your product.

Get the full story at The Register.