Friday, November 22, 2013

Creative Economy Report 2013

UNESCO, here.

Intellectual Property chapter of TPP poses threat to Open Access

Mysciencework.com, here.

Le policy universitarie in materia di Accesso Aperto alla scienza: l’esperienza dell’Università di Trieste

Seminario, 27 novembre 2013, Università di Trento, qui.

Programma
14.30
Saluti della Rettrice - prof.ssa Daria de Pretis

14.40
Introduzione – prof. Roberto Caso, delegato della Rettrice per l’Open Access e le politiche contro il plagio

15.00
La policy dell’Università di Trieste in materia di accesso aperto – prof. Fabio Benedetti, Presidente della Commissione di Ateneo per l’accesso aperto dell’Università di Trieste

15.30 - 16.00
Dibattito

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Delivering the Benefits? Efficiencies and Airline Mergers (US Airways-American)

AAI White Paper (D. Moss), here

India's PM (also) on competition policy

Inaugural address at the 3rd BRICS International Competition Conference, here

A Brazilian State Takes Open Data To Another Level

Techpresident.com, here

After a year of threats, first suit is filed over hated “scanner patents”

ArsTechnica.com, here

Die Open-Data-Bewegung - Das Verhältnis von Praktiken, Zielen und Selbstbild der Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland

S. Baak, hier.

Defying the logic, forgetting the facts: the new European proposal for data protection in the police sector

J. Cannataci, here

Living with Uncertainty in IP Law

JIPLP Editorial, here.

HarperCollins, Curriculet Test New School E-book Model

PublishersWeekly.com, here

That Google Books decision: good, but only second best?

The IPKat, here

Software patent reform just died in the House, thanks to IBM and Microsoft

Washingtonpost.com, here

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Hidden efficiencies: On the relevance of business justifications in abuse of dominance cases

H. Friederiszick, L. Gratz, here

Schienenkartell: ThyssenKrupp zahlt Millionenentschädigung an Deutsche Bahn

Spiegel.de, hier. Sueddeutsche.de, hier

Convention 108 with Additional Protocol and Modernisation proposals

CAHDATA, Council of Europe, here

Big data can improve health outcomes, say experts

Out-Law.com, here

Patent Reform 2013: Measured Reform Proposals from the Senate

Patentlyo.com, here

How Self-Publishing Led Amazon to German Ebook Dominance

PublishingPerspectives.com, here

Base de données : caractère non substantiel des investissements de constitution

Legalis.net, ici.

Comments Received on Copyright Green Paper

Ntia.doc.gov, here

Marking Up the TPP

Project-disco.org, here.

Numérisation : L'Etat ne suppléera pas "les partenaires privés réticents"

Actualitte.com, ici

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Rise of Innovative Business Models: Content Delivery Methods in the Digital Age

Hearing, Committee on the Judiciary, here.

The Internet of Things: Privacy and Security in a Connected World

E. Ramirez, here. FTC workshop's page here

Google's vertical search proposals: what will be EC antitrust chief's verdict?

TheGuardian.com, here

These charts show how the U.S. could lose its edge in scientific research

Washingtonpost.com, here

Rémunération proportionnelle du partage: la Hadopi s'associe à des universitaires

Numerama.com, ici

Open Access to science and data = cash and economic bonanza

N. Kroes, here

New group fights digital theft with personal touch

Usatoday.com, here.

EPIC Urges FCC to Investigate AT&T’s Practice of Selling Consumer Phone Records

Epic.org, here

Rights Protection Mechanisms for New gTLDs

ICANN Generic Domains Division, here.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Revisiting antitrust institutions: The case for guidelines to recalibrate the Federal Trade Commission’s section 5 unfair methods of competition authority

J. Wright, here

Frank La Rue (Onu): “Incostituzionale una riforma Agcom su diritto d’autore online”

Lastampa.it, qui

Neelie Kroes calls for modernising copyright for the digital age

Futureofcopyright.com, here

Kick the data secrecy habit and everyone wins

Newscientist.com, here

Comments Received To South Africa’s Process For New IP Policy

IP-watch.org, here

Study on Intellectual Property and Brain Drain - A Mapping Exercise

WIPO Secreteriat, peer-reviewed by F. Lissoni, here

Information Resellers - Consumer Privacy Framework Needs to Reflect Changes in Technology and the Marketplace

US Government Accountability Office, here

Law Professors Call for Public Process for Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property Chapter

Infojustice.org, here

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Google Books Litigation Update

A. Ahsir, here.

Italy: Open Data Action Plan

Department for Public Administration in cooperation with the Agency for Digital Italy (AgID), here.

Apple maps: how Google lost when everyone thought it had won

Theguardian.com, here

Competition in the online world

J. Almunia, here

Content Creation, Access to Information, Open Internet

Workshop, Internet Governance Forum, Transcript here

Copyright research and innovation policy

European Parliament, Brussels, 12 November 2013, Programme here, streaming here

The Art of Persuasion: Competition Advocacy at the Intersection of Antitrust and Intellectual Property

R. Hesse, here

La legge italiana sull’accesso aperto agli articoli scientifici: l’inizio di un percorso normativo

R. Caso, P. Galimberti, here

A few words about copyright

G. Brandis, here

Friday, November 08, 2013

Is Auto Parts Evolving into a Supercartel?

J. Connor, here

YouTube Comments Changes Spark Petition For Privacy

Inquisitr.com, here.

The new Competition and Markets Authority: how will it promote competition?

D. Currie, here.

Ads Could Soon Know If You’re an Introvert (on Twitter)

MIT Technology Review, here.

US loses Unesco voting rights after stopping funds over Palestine decision

TheGuardian.com, here

Felines jumping from OHIM to General Court: puma and designs

IPKat, here

Ideology Matters in the Antitrust Debate

M. Lao, here

The Landscape of Proposed Patent Law Amendments – A Comparative Look

J. Contreras, here

The quest for behavioural Antitrust. Beyond the label battle, towards a cognitive approach

L. Arnaudo, Agcm Collana "Temi e problemi", qui

Credit Cards in Canada: What Role for Competition Law?

Kluwer Competition Law Blog, here

U.S. spying harms cloud computing, Internet freedom: Wikipedia founder

Reuters.com, here.

"It's not always fun to live in an authors' rights country"

B. Hugenholtz, Flexing Authors’ Rights, Peter Jaszi Distinguished Lecture on Intellectual Property, Video here (from 1:14:16).
"It's not always fun to live in an authors' rights country" at 1:23:38.

Highly recommended, in the following some notes I took:

Who could be against "fair" use in Europe and elsewhere?

A number of historic reasons:
- civil law tradition: the law should be made by the people, the judge should be no more than "la bouche de la loi" (mouthpiece of the law)
- authors' rights: different rationale, constitutions at national level hardly ever mention intellectual property: there to protect authors as a matter of natural justice; exceptions narrowly interpreted. As part of that, the moral rights' tradition.

Broader concerns:
- affecting legal certainty
- opening the floodgates to piracy
- fear of US legal imperialism ("fair US to us")

Legal arguments:
- fair use in conflict with the Berne Convention, with TRIPS

But:

- civil law is already dominated by general principles, and unwritten law also a source of law
- generally, moral rights do not impede the introduction of more flexible norms
- public interest and balancing of rights already part of the discussion
- fair use is not wild, it is fairly predictable, despite being open
2010 "Vorschaubilder" case involving thumbnails: German Court looking for ways to justify them, and cooked up a theory of "implied consent." Reasonable solution, but we need more legal certainty.
- three-step test as a safety net

Legal transplants rarely work, but in Europe we need more flexibility, and the European and international legal frameworks do tolerate it (problems exist, but are not insurmountable).

Evidence pointing in the direction of flexibility:

- Recital 2, InfoSoc Directive: "The European Council, meeting at Corfu on 24 and 25 June 1994, stressed the need to create a general and flexible legal framework at Community level in order to foster the development of the information society in Europe."

Limitations and exceptions (LE) rather loosely circumscribed, rather like prototypes (eg., art. 5(3)(d) InfoSoc Directive: "quotations for purposes such as criticism or review"; (i) incidental inclusion of a work or other subject-matter in other material; (k) use for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche; not even the French know what pastiche means...perhaps user generated content?), with ample room for maneuver (Sweden, very broad quotation exception: quote to the extent necessary for the purpose, in accordance with proper uses).

Three-step test not that much of a problem:
- "certain special cases": flexible norms can be reasonably predictable, eg fair use is not all encompassing
- "prejudice the legitimate interests of the rightholder": flexible norms do not necessary prejudice authors' and rightholders' rights
- nobody has ever complained to the WTO about the US fair use rule.
- the Berne three-step conceived against the background of all LE existing at that time, fair use included (US not part of Berne at that time, but future adherence was already part of the picture).

Discussions on flexibilities in the EU

Luckily, the idea of introducing more flexibility is gaining momentum at the EU political level, inspired by the UK and Irish examples among others. Also the Netherlands is forcefully making that point in Europe.

Irish Copyright Review Report suggesting the introduction of some sort of fair use, complementing exiting LE.

Kind of flexibilities that work: two approaches
- Extend existing LE to create more room for maneuver
- the South Korean/Irish approach: flexibility alongside circumscribed LE (civil law) - rule of complementary flexibility; similarly, the Wittem project - European Copyright Code advocating it, at article 5.5:
"Further limitations
Any other use that is comparable to the uses enumerated in art. 5.1 to 5.4(1) is permitted provided that the corresponding requirements of the relevant limitation are met and the use does not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author or rightholder, taking account of the legitimate interests of third parties."

Who cares about flexibilities in copyright? Everybody is infringing copyright anyway on a daily basis (only speaking for the Netherlands)

Law abiding citizens, and students.
Institutional users (such as libraries) and innovators: chilling effects.
Authors themselves.
Everybody  believing in copyright, and Prof. Hugenholtz certainly does: increasing gap between social norms of the people "in Internet" and the law of copyright; social legitimacy of copyright currently under serious threat.

German court stays Google-Apple FRAND rate-setting case, invites EU Commission to participate

Fosspatents.com, here

Urheberrecht: Große Koalition will Haftung von Sharehostern verschärfen

Heise.de, hier.

Strategic Underinvestment as an Abuse of Dominance under EU Competition Rules

P. Merlino, G. Faella, here

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Microsoft Is Making An Astonishing $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties

BusinessInsider.com, here..

Big Data for Europe

N. Kroes,here.
What is Big Data? Memo, here

The Guardian on Google' s Leaked Settlement Proposals

Here.
Commitments from Bits.blogs.nytimes.com, here.
Questionnaire from .consumerwatchdog.org, here

"Strategic Patent Acquisitions" in Review

The Antitrust Source, here.

Rockstar vs. Google: Software patents as a license for privateering

FSFE.org, here

User Generated Content under Canadian Copyright Law Symposium Videos

Osgoode Hall Law School, here

Inspiring Creativity - Promoting Culture and Creative Industries across Europe

European Territorial Cooperation, here

Antitrust damages in EU law and policy

J. Almunia, here

Five Arguments Laid to Rest after Actavis

M. Carrier, here

Des "services culturels numériques" sous le joug du CSA ? Refus de l'ASIC

Numerama.com, ici

Startups Pitching A “Netflix For E-Books” May Have A Tough Sell

TechCrunch.com, here

Department of Commerce Seeks Input on Digital First Sale

Thedigitalshift.com here.
Supplementary info published on the Federal Register, here (p. 2 ff.)

Behavioural Economics in Competition and Consumer Policy

Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, here. Presentations from the book's launch here.