Law Commons^™

Transitional Justice, Truth, And Copyright: The Case Of Colombia, Marcela Palacio Puerta

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The impact of copyright on various aspects of human life is becoming increasingly evident. This paper explores, for the first time in the literature, the relationship between copyright and the search for peace, with a focus on the transitional justice process in Colombia. Through a documentary research methodology, the study highlights the challenges posed by copyright laws that lack certainty in the application of exceptions and limitations to the digital world. Such challenges can difficulty a process that is inherently complex and holds great significance. Moreover, these laws also affect access to information, which is crucial in a context where …

Third Joint Academic Opinion On The South African Copyright Amendment Bill [B13d-2017], Sanya Samtani, Klaus Beiter, Sean Flynn, Caroline B. Ncube, Chijioke Okorie, Desmond Oriakhogba, Andrew Rens, Tobias Schonwetter

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

South Africa is in the process of reforming its copyright law, attempting to update and align it with constitutional rights and existing and prospective international treaty obligations. A coalition of copyright, human rights, and constitutional law experts have been engaging in the ongoing national and provincial public participation processes. This working paper chronicles the law reform process until April 2023, covering related constitutional court litigation, and then goes on to set out the submissions made on behalf of the group of experts. The process offers insights into the different but crucial roles played by the legislature and the judiciary in …

Second Revised Draft Text For The Wipo Broadcasting Organizations Treaty, Annotated, Sean Flynn, Miguel Alvarenga

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The agenda of the 43rd meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights includes a Second Revised Draft Text for the WIPO Broadcasting Organizations Treaty. This PIJIP Working Paper displays the changes between the first and second revised drafts and adds short commentary on some of the major drafting issues. The comments include repeated references to the working paper Prof. P. Bernt Hugenholtz, Groundhog Day in Geneva: The WIPO Broadcasting Treaty is on the Agenda Once Again. American University International Law Review Symposium on the Right to Research in International Copyright Law, v.2 March …

The Wipo Broadcasting Treaty: Comments On The Second Revised Draft, Bernt Hugenholtz

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

From March 13 to 17, 2023, the WIPO Standing Committee will discuss, for the 43rd consecutive time, a possible Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations. The draft treaty, which has featured high on the Committee’s agenda since its inception in 1998, would offer international protection to broadcasting organizations against unauthorized retransmission and related uses. Despite many years of discussion, stern opposition, countless redrafts and political setbacks, the controversial treaty project has never been abandoned. A Second Revised Draft Text, published on 11 January 2023, is now on the Committee’s agenda. This paper critically discusses the history, rationales, and examines …

Data Localization And Government Access To Data Stored Abroad: Discussion Paper 2, Shanzay Pervaiz, Alex Joel

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The Centre for Information Policy Leadership (CIPL) and Tech, Law & Security Program (TLS) have been collaborating on a project regarding data localization policies. As data localization is increasingly gaining traction, we seek to understand the different dimensions of the impacts and effectiveness of these policies. As part of this collaboration—CIPL published a paper on the “real life” business, societal, and consumer impacts of data localization policies and TLS published the present paper on whether data localization measures are legally effective in achieving one of their main ostensible purposes, i.e., to prevent foreign government access to data.

The Trouble With The Wipo Broadcasting Treaty, James Love

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialized UN body that provides forums to discuss intellectual property policies and practices, provides technical assistance to its member states and engages in norm setting. Since 1997, WIPO has engaged in a series of activities to evaluate proposals advocated by some companies that are engaged in broadcasting. There is yet another effort to bring this proposal to a diplomatic conference. This article (i) provides background on the negotiations including the evolving rationales for broadcast right; (ii) describes the differences between the thin temporary signal protection model and the far more problematic vision …

Lost In Transit: How Enforcement Of Foreign Copyright Judgements Undermines The Right To Research, Naama Daniel

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The ease of travel in the globalized, modern world is a double-edged sword for the right to research: while research opportunities are bolstered due to information and data traveling extremely easily in the digital world, the right to research may be undermined by the easy travel of foreign copyright judgments between countries. This article analyzes thoroughly, for the first time, the threats posed to the right to research by private international law instruments on recognition and enforcement of foreign copyright judgments. This article uses a theoretical and doctrinal perspective to analyze the matter, demonstrating that the right to research, aimed …

Limitations And Exceptions In International Copyright And Related Rights Treaties, Sean Flynn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Copyright limitations and exceptions have been an integral part of international copyright and related rights treaties since the original text of the Berne Convention in 1886, which protected the ability to adopt exceptions for uses for “educational” and “scientific” uses. Since that instrument, there has been great -- if uneven -- development of norms on limitations and exceptions. Currently, the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights is considering limitations and exceptions in the draft text for a treaty on broadcast organizations as well as a proposal from the African Group for a work programme on …

Government Role In Realising A ‘Right’ To Research In Africa, Chijioke Okorie

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Development agendas and plans such as World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Development Agenda, African Union Agenda 2063, South Africa’s National Development Plan 2030 and Nigeria’s National Development Plan 2021 – 2025, etc. indicate the need for and benefits of research for development. Research as an activity is needed for countries to sharpen their innovative edge and contribute to global scientific and technological advancement. Recent scholarship has highlighted the positive impact on national development of copyright exceptions implementing a right to research in the form of either a complete defence to copyright infringement, or, as user rights. However, the realisation of …

Legal Literacies For Text Data Mining – Cross-Border (“Lltdm-X”): White Paper, Rachael G. Samberg, Timothy Vollmer, Thomas Padilla

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Legal Literacies For Text Data Mining – Cross-Border (“Lltdm-X”): Case Study, Rachael Samberg, Timothy Vollmer, Thomas Padilla

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Combating Ransomware: One Year On, V. Gerard Comizio, Gary Corn, William Deckelman, Karl Hopkins, Mark Hughes, Patrick Mccarty, Sujit Raman, Kurt Sanger, Ari Schwartz, Melanie Teplinsky, Jackson Colling

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Reconceptualizing Open Access To Theses And Dissertations, Orit Fischman Afori, Dalit Ken-Dror Feldman

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Theses and dissertations (TD) are academic research projects that are conducted by graduate students to acquire a high academic degree, such as a PhD. The perception of the written TD has evolved over the years, following changes concerning the purpose of advanced academic studies. Today, these academic fruits should meet a high standard of academic innovation, which is understood broadly as encompassing not only knowledge concerning basic science but also the knowledge that generates social and economic value for society.

The modern perception of TD has generated a call for their greater accessibility, as part of the Open Science movement. …

Content Governance In The Shadows: How Telcos & Other Internet Infrastructure Companies "Moderate" Online Content, Prem M. Trivedi

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Legal Reform To Enhance Global Text And Data Mining Research, Sean Flynn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Text and data mining (TDM) research involves the process of collecting vast amounts of digitized material and using software to analyze and extract information from such information. TDM is a crucial first step to addressing some of the world’s greatest scientific and societal challenges. But, as we show in this article, a patchwork of copyright laws across jurisdictions limits where and how TDM research can occur. We discuss how the World Intellectual Property Organization and legislatures around the world can promote harmonization of copyright exceptions for various research uses. Addressing research uses, including for TDM, in copyright reform can help …

The Status Of Reproduction Rights Organisations (Rros) In Africa, Desmond Oriakhogba, Dick Kawooya

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This report is based on desk research conducted from June 2021 to May 2022 by way of a survey of publicly available information on Reproduction Rights Organisations (RROs) in all 55 African Union (AU) member states. It is the first of a two-part study. The second part of the study will be conducted as empirical research where data will be obtained from relevant stakeholders in the collective management systems of African countries to address key issues flagged in this report as requiring further evidence.

This report examines the current status of RROs in Africa to help inform policy and legislative …

Research Exceptions In Comparative Copyright, Sean Flynn, Luca Schirru, Michael Palmedo, Andrés Izquierdo

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This Article categorizes the world’s copyright laws according to the degree to which they provide exceptions to copyright exclusivity for research uses. We classify countries based on the degree to which they have a research exception in their law that is sufficiently open to be able to permit reproduction and communications of copyrighted work needed for academic (i.e. non-commercial) text and data mining (TDM) research. We show that nearly every copyright law has at least one exception that promotes uses for research purposes. We find six different approaches to the provision of research exceptions that implicate application to TDM. Notably, …

Reforming Copyright Or Toward Another Science? A More Human Rights-Oriented Approach Under The Rebspa In Constructing A "Right To Research" For Scholarly Publishing, Klaus Beiter

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This article identifies copyright impediments existing in the sphere of science, to then make (tentative) suggestions as to how these may be overcome. It focuses on scholarly publishing only, and here primarily on digital content, specifically asking whether expensive commercial scholarly publishers continue to “add value” to research in the digital era. The deficits of copyright law and potential solutions thereto are assessed in the light of the right of everyone “to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications” (REBSPA) as laid down in Article 15(1)(b) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of …

Trips-Compliant Alternatives For Overcoming Intellectual Property Barriers To Covid-19 Countermeasures, Brook Baker

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

In the aftermath of the recent WTO Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement (adopted June 17, 2022), there may be some confusion about the many options that countries have for overcoming intellectual property barriers to allow alternative production, distribution, and use of COVID-19 countermeasures. Of course, visibility into the patent landscape for particular products is essential to understanding freedom to operate in terms of products, ingredient, and manufacturing processes, and that work is complicated, though aided by the Medicines Patent Pool MedsPaL and VaxPaL databases and work done by other researchers on COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutics patents . Overcoming patent …

Conceptualizing A 'Right To Research' And Its Implications For Copyright Law: An International And European Perspective, Christophe Geiger, Bernd Justin Jütte

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Copyright, at international, European and national levels, does not provide a legal framework that prioritizes enabling and incentivizing research using protected works and information to the extent necessary and desirable in a digital, data-driven society in order to build a sustainable ecosystem for innovation and creativity. While small progress has been made, for example with the recent introduction of specific exceptions for research purposes and for text and data mining in certain national legislations as well as in the European Union law, a horizontal approach towards a more research-friendly copyright ecosystem has so far failed to evolve. By revisiting international …

Protecting Children In The Age Of End-To-End Encryption, Laura Draper

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

A Novel Dataset Measuring Change In Copyright Exceptions, Michael Palmedo

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Copyrights grant creators long periods of market exclusivity during which they or their agents have the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute their works. However, copyright exceptions limit their scope and strength. The laws on both copyright protection and copyright exceptions vary substantially from one country to the next. This working paper introduces a novel, survey-based dataset that describes changes to 24 countries’ laws on copyright exceptions over time. To explore the data, I construct two indices from subsets of the dataset; one that focus on exceptions related to ICT technologies and another that focuses on educational uses. The indices …

Non-Patent Intellectual Property Barriers To Covid-19 Vaccines, Treatment And Containment, Sean Flynn, Erica Nkrumah, Luca Schirru

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

As the World Trade Organization considers a proposal to waive or otherwise address intellectual property barriers to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the attention given by scholars and policy makers has been focused on patents. The original proposals by South Africa and India, as well as the groundbreaking support of the United States, however, explicitly applied to all forms of intellectual property. This paper documents many instances where non-patent forms of intellectual property create barriers to the global scale up of access to vaccines, treatments, and the ability to contain the virus through social distancing. Addressing …

Research Exceptions In Comparative Copyright Law, Sean Flynn, Michael Palmedo, Andrés Izquierdo

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Recent scholarship has highlighted the positive impact on scholarship of copyright exceptions for text and data mining and of more “open” exceptions for research uses. Until now, however, there has not been a collection and categorization of the world’s copyright laws according to the degree to which they provide exceptions for research. In this report, we release the results of the first such study. We show that every copyright law in the world has at least one exception to promote research uses of copyrighted works, but that such exceptions vary widely between countries. We conclude that the world’s exceptions for …

Widening The Lens On Content Moderation, Jenna Ruddock, Justin Sherman

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Reforming The Right To Remuneration In The South African Copyright Amendment Bill, Malebakeng Agnes Forere

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

One of the core goals of South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill is to provide a right to fair remuneration for all authors and performers. This objective was motivated by the experiences of numerous famous South African creators who, despite their success in the creative industry, died as paupers. The problem that the Bill seeks to address is that the distributors of copyrighted work are dominated by multinational monopolies that are able to exact enormous concessions in their contracts with South African creators. Among the tools to address this problem in the Bill is a new right to a “fair royalty” …

Not The African Copyright Pirate Is Perverse, But The Situation In Which (S)He Lives-Textbooks For Education, Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations, And Constitutionalization "From Below" In Ip Law, Klaus Beiter

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Printed textbooks remain crucial for education, particularly in developing countries. However, in many of these countries, textbooks are unavailable, too expensive, or not accessible in learners’ native tongues. Digital content, for many reasons, does not prove a wondrous solution. Cheaply (translating and) reproducing textbooks would be a strategy. However, reprography is highly regulated under copyright law. Copyright also adds to the cost of textbooks. The availability, accessibility, and acceptability of learning materials constitute essential elements of the right to education under international human rights law.

Intellectual property (IP) law has so far refrained from endorsing the concept of extraterritorial state …

The Missing Goal-Scorers In The Artificial Intelligence Team: Of Big Data, The Fundamental Right To Research And The Failed Text And Data Mining Limitations In The Csdm Directive, Christophe Geiger

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This article argues that recent strategies of the European Union in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) resemble a football team missing a goal-scorer to win any of the competitions with other jurisdictions having more flexible limitations to copyright, in particular with those allowing robust text and data mining (TDM) activities. It analyses the TDM limitations newly introduced in EU copyright law by the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market to show that these provisions not only fail to take duly into account the right to research grounded in the fundamental right to information, but also will not …

Platform Liability Under Article 17 Of The Copyright In The Digital Single Market Directive, Automated Filtering And Fundamental Rights: An Impossible Match, Christophe Geiger, Bernd Justin Jütte

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM Directive) introduced a change of paradigm with regard to the liability of some platforms in the European Union. Under the safe harbour rules of the Directive on electronic commerce (E-Commerce Directive), intermediaries in the EU were shielded from liability for acts of their users committed through their services, provided they had no knowledge of it. Although platform operators could be required to help enforce copyright infringements online by taking down infringing content, the E-commerce Directive also drew a very clear line that intermediaries could not be obliged to monitor all …

Chinese Technology Platforms Operating In The United States: Assessing The Threat (Originally Published As A Joint Report Of The National Security, Technology, And Law Working Group At The Hoover Institution At Stanford University And The Tech, Law & Security Program At American University Washington College Of Law), Gary Corn, Jennifer Daskal, Jack Goldsmith, Chris Inglis, Paul Rosenzweig, Samm Sacks, Bruce Schneier, Alex Stamos, Vincent Stewart

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.