This week is Fair Use Week, an annual celebration of the important doctrines of fair use and fair dealing. It is designed to highlight and promote the opportunities presented by fair use and fair dealing, celebrate successful stories, and explain these doctrines. *This is a guest blog post by Jonathan Band, policybandwidth* The “balanced copyright” provision of the […]
Over the last several years, a group of countries, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the United States negotiated a comprehensive regional trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). This agreement was controversial for a number of reasons and, as a result of the recent […]
*This post is also available as an issue brief here* On October 5, 2015, the twelve trade ministers of the TPP negotiating parties (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the United States) announced that they had come to an agreement on the large regional trade agreement that had […]
On October 5, 2015, the twelve trade ministers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement announced that an agreement had been reached after five years of negotiations. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement is a large, comprehensive regional trade agreement in Asia and the Pacific between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and […]
The United States is currently negotiating a large, regional free trade agreement with eleven other countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. On August 5, 2015, Knowledge Ecology International published a new leak of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement’s (TPP) negotiating text for the intellectual property chapter. This text, […]
On Monday, March 23, 2015, 20 organizations, including the American Library Association, the Association of College & Research Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries, sent a letter to Congress opposing “fast-track” authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) due to the lack of transparency in the negotiations. The letter urges Congress to ensure that […]
On Thursday, December 11, 2014, ARL joined a diverse coalition of forty-eight organizations and individuals in submitting a letter to the trade ministers of the twelve countries involved in the negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) calling for enhanced transparency and the release of the negotiating text. This letter comes on the heels of the […]
On July 9, 2014, ARL joined thirty-four other organizations in sending a letter to ministers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiating parties opposing the copyright term of life plus seventy years proposed by the United States. These organizations, representing libraries, archives, authors, educators, students, digital rights advocacy groups, and technological innovators, note that this extended […]
Transparency in government is a fundamental aspect of a democratic society. Citizens have the right to be informed and have access to information regarding political affairs and the laws and regulations that will impact them. Without access to information, the public is disadvantaged in its ability to make substantive commentary, challenge and influence public policy, […]
Yesterday, Canada announced—just in time for the self-imposed deadline by the negotiating parties of September 30— that it would join the trade agreement with the United States and Mexico. This agreement, a renegotiation of NAFTA, which apparently is also being called the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA, includes much more prescriptive provision on intellectual property than […]