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Category Archives: Intellectual Property

Historic Treaty Adopted, Boosts Access to Books for Visually Impaired Persons Worldwide

News release: “International negotiators meeting under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted [on June 27, 2013] a landmark new treaty that boosts access to books for the benefit of hundreds of millions of people who are blind, visually impaired and print-disabled. The treaty, approved after more than a week of intense… Continue Reading

2013 University of California Open Access Policy

News release: “The Academic Senate of the University of California has passed an Open Access Policy, ensuring that future research articles authored by faculty at all 10 campuses of UC will be made available to the public at no charge. “The Academic Council’s adoption of this policy on July 24, 2013, came after a six-year… Continue Reading

Report – MIT and the Prosecution of Aaron Swartz

Follow up to previous postings on Aaron Swartz, see this Report to the President: – “MIT and the Prosecution of Aaron Swartz: “In January 2013, MIT President L. Rafael Reif asked Professor Hal Abelson to lead a thorough analysis of MIT’s involvement in the Aaron Swartz matter, from the time that MIT first perceived unusual… Continue Reading

Social Mobilization and the Networked Public Sphere: Mapping the SOPA-PIPA Debate

“The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is pleased to announce the release of a new publication from the Media Cloud project, Social Mobilization and the Networked Public Sphere: Mapping the SOPA-PIPA Debate, authored by Yochai Benkler, Hal Roberts, Rob Faris, Alicia Solow-Niederman, and Bruce Etling.  In this paper, we use a new set of… Continue Reading

Economic Impact of Cybercrime and Cyber Espionage

Center for Strategic and International Studies July 2013: “The wide range of existing estimates of the annual loss—from a few billion dollars to hundreds of billions—reflects several difficulties. Companies conceal their losses and some are not aware of what has been taken. Intellectual property is hard to value. Some estimates relied on surveys, which provide very imprecise results unless… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – Elder Justice, Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, Financial and Performance Management, Counterfeit and Pirated Goods in U.S. Economy

Elder Justice More Federal Coordination and Public Awareness Needed, GAO-13-498, Jul 10, 2013 Federal Employees’ Compensation Act Analysis of Benefits Under Proposed Program Changes, GAO-13-730T, Jul 10, 2013 Financial and Performance Management More Reliable and Complete Information Needed to Address Federal Management and Fiscal Challenges, GAO-13-752T, Jul 10, 2013 Medicare Outpatient Therapy Implementation of the… Continue Reading

IP Commission Report on Theft of American Intellectual Property

The independent Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property released a new report on May 22, 2013 – “Key Findings: The annual losses are likely to be comparable to the current annual level of U.S. exports to Asia—over $300 billion. The exact figure is unknowable, but private and governmental studies tend to understate the… Continue Reading

Digital by Default or by Detour?’ Assessing User Centric eGovernment performance in Europe

Digital by Default or by Detour? Assessing User Centric eGovernment performance in Europe – eGovernment Benchmark 2012:  “Software is an essential tool of production in every sector of the modern economy. Enterprises of all sorts rely on it to design products, provide services, communicate with customers, and manage operations. But software contributes considerably more value to… Continue Reading

Competitive Advantage: The Economic Impact of Properly Licensed Software

Competitive Advantage: The Economic Impact of Properly Licensed Software – Global Study Conducted for BSA by INSEAD eLab: “Public Services Online: Digital by Default or by Detour? The 2012 eGovernment benchmark provide insight in three broad areas: A demand-side citizen view of public services – based on a representative sample, of 28,000 European internet-using citizens. Three life-events are assessed: starting a business,… Continue Reading

Paper – Internet Content Governance & Human Rights

Lucchi, Nicola, Internet Content Governance & Human Rights (May 1, 2013). Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law Vol. 16, No. 3 (2013). Available at SSRN “The paper examines how Internet content governance is posing regulatory issues directly related to the growing importance of an equitable access to digital information. In particular, it looks at… Continue Reading

New on LLRX – Copyrights, Fundamental Rights, and the Constitution

Via LLRX.com – Copyrights, Fundamental Rights, and the Constitution – The recent Supreme Court decision, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, addresses fair use and the “first sale” doctrine, upon whose protection libraries, used-book dealers, technology companies, consumer-goods retailers, and museums have long relied. Professor Annmarie Bridy’s commentary focuses on the position that intellectual property… Continue Reading

Administration Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets

Administration Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets, February 2013: “The Administration will utilize trade policy tools to increase international enforcement against trade secret theft to minimize unfair competition against U.S. companies. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will make additional efforts to promote adequate and effective protection and enforcement of trade secrets. These… Continue Reading