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Month: February 2017

Intellectual Property Arrangements: Australian Productivity Commission Inquiry Report – exceptions and geoblocking

Australia’s exceptions are too narrow and prescriptive, do not reflect the way people today consume and use content, and do not readily accommodate new legitimate uses of copyright material. Legislative change is required to expand the categories of use deemed to be fair. Even when this occurs, changes have simply ‘caught up’ with existing community practice — Australia did not legalise the wide-spread practice of home VCR recording until as late as 2006, by which time most VCRs were household relics.

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Russian ministry of culture seeks more reading opportunities for blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled persons

Russian ministry of culture (MinCult) aims to broad access to literary works for print disabled persons. Without right holders’ consent it is possible to issue Braille or audio books for blind persons, provided that books are published in special format protected from copying.

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Consumers’ FAQs on copyright: what does copyright and related rights mean and cover?

There has been published a very useful guide for consumers and for anyone who is curious about copyright. This guide explains different things, relating to IP rights, in simple way. The project has been commissioned by the European Union intellectual property office.

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Payers of private copying levy in Russia realised its imperfections but can’t change it

Currently Russian law requires manufacturers and importers of equipment capable of copying a copyrighted content to pay private copying levy. Nobody from “taxpayers” likes this levy, and pays it reluctantly. What they can do? File a suit? Yes, Russian law allows it to challenge system of private copying levy in court and there is a defendant. But they always chose wrong defendant and lost.

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The “Heavy Young Heathens” filed suit for missing consideration for and credits in “Lucifer” theme

According to suit Marderosians wrote, recorded and produced the original musical composition and master recording from which the main title theme of the hit television series Lucifer is excerpted. The Heavy Young Heathens were outraged, that, as they believe, their music has been used as Lucifer main title theme, they have not received due consideration for this.

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Don’t confuse unauthorised copying with trademark infringement

Plaintiff Slep-Tone Entertainment Corporation produces karaoke music tracks. The tracks are marketed under the trademark “Sound Choice.” Plaintiff releases them on compact discs encoded in a format known as “CD-G,” which accompanies karaoke music with graphics, lyrics, and singing cues when played on compatible equipment.

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Russian movie studio Lenfilm will not get the rights in movies at no cost

Russian Ministry of Finance (MinFin) is of opinion that the Medinsky’s idea to help LenFilm and Gorky studio to regain at no cost the “lost copyright” in movies made by these studios is unjustified. The Russian federal agency on state property management (RussianProperty) and Russian ministry of economic development (Minekonomrazvitiya) are of the same opinions.

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Intellectual Property Arrangements: Australian Productivity Commission Inquiry Report – key points and copyright

Intellectual property (IP) arrangements offer opportunities to creators of new and valuable knowledge to secure sufficient returns to motivate their initial endeavour or investment. In this respect, they are akin to the property rights that apply to ownership of physical goods. But ideas are not like physical goods in other key respects. Ideas also provide economic and social value as others draw on them and extend the frontiers of knowledge. For these reasons, property rights over ideas and their expression are not granted in perpetuity and limitations are placed on their application.

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Retrospective: digitization and Global Music Trade Patterns since 2006

Another working paper by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. It results from the Digital Economy Research Programme at the JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, which carries out economic research on information society and EU Digital Agenda policy issues, with a focus on growth, jobs and innovation in the Single Market.

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Internet-companies proposed their own amendments to upcoming regulation for OTT-services in Russia

Internet companies have almost agreed with certain provisions of proposed regulations for OTT-services operating in Russia, but also have their own amendments in order to improve regulation and exclude from its scopes Russian projects, including those, which already have been funded by foreign investors and operate in Russia.

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