Dear all
It was great to meet so many of you at Wikimania in Montreal!
I'm writing today to let you know that negotiations have started for a new NAFTA treaty between Mexico, the US, and Canada. The negotiations will also include copyright provisions, which we will keep an eye on. You can read more about what is to be expected in the negotiations in a blog post by the EFF https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/with-release-nafta-negotiating-objectives-our-new-infographic-makes-sense-it-all .
Best, Jan
==
Jan Gerlach Public Policy Manager Wikimedia Foundation 149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 jgerlach@wikimedia.org
HI Jan and all,
Thanks for this notification of the blog post from the EFF. The post mentions the TPP, but one thing it does not mention about TPP -- as I recall -- was that there was a provision that (in some cases) prevented litigants from bringing suits against corporations for copyright violations. Despite the bland language of the current negotations (as articulated in the blog post), I bet the U.S. will try to do something similar to protect corporations, particularly as the U.S. approaches 2019 when materials published in 1923 will finally go into the public domain.
It may be worth remembering that, despite 95 years of copyright protection in the U.S. Mexico is slightly worse: 100 years of protection. At one of the sessions at Wikimania I asked someone who keeps abreast of Canadian copyright issues whether the Canadian Parliament is being influenced by the U.S. for longer protections. The answer was no, that Canadian politicians seem satisfied with what's currently in place and that's there's currently no interest in opening the issue.
Bob Kosovsky, Ph.D. -- Curator, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts blog: http://www.nypl.org/blog/author/44 Twitter: @kos2 Listowner: OPERA-L ; EXLIBRIS-L ; SMT-ANNOUNCE ; SoundForge-users - My opinions do not necessarily represent those of my institutions -
*Inspiring Lifelong Learning* | *Advancing Knowledge* | *Strengthening Our Communities *
On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 6:39 PM, Jan Gerlach jgerlach@wikimedia.org wrote:
Dear all
It was great to meet so many of you at Wikimania in Montreal!
I'm writing today to let you know that negotiations have started for a new NAFTA treaty between Mexico, the US, and Canada. The negotiations will also include copyright provisions, which we will keep an eye on. You can read more about what is to be expected in the negotiations in a blog post by the EFF https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/with-release-nafta-negotiating-objectives-our-new-infographic-makes-sense-it-all .
Best, Jan
==
Jan Gerlach Public Policy Manager Wikimedia Foundation 149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 jgerlach@wikimedia.org
Publicpolicy mailing list Publicpolicy@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/publicpolicy
Hi Bob
Indeed, TPP contained so-called investor-state dispute settlement provisions, which - to put it in simple terms - allow companies/investors to bring claims against states. NAFTA actually already includes such provisions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor-state_dispute_settlement. However, I'm not sure how these will be part of the negotiations.
Regarding copyright in Canada, I'd like to point out that the country will have its next mandatory review of the law http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2017/04/copyright-reform-canada-beyond/ this fall. NAFTA negotiations that include copyright make this an odd timing.
Best, Jan
On Fri, Aug 18, 2017 at 5:15 AM Bob Kosovsky bobkosovsky@nypl.org wrote:
HI Jan and all,
Thanks for this notification of the blog post from the EFF. The post mentions the TPP, but one thing it does not mention about TPP -- as I recall -- was that there was a provision that (in some cases) prevented litigants from bringing suits against corporations for copyright violations. Despite the bland language of the current negotations (as articulated in the blog post), I bet the U.S. will try to do something similar to protect corporations, particularly as the U.S. approaches 2019 when materials published in 1923 will finally go into the public domain.
It may be worth remembering that, despite 95 years of copyright protection in the U.S. Mexico is slightly worse: 100 years of protection. At one of the sessions at Wikimania I asked someone who keeps abreast of Canadian copyright issues whether the Canadian Parliament is being influenced by the U.S. for longer protections. The answer was no, that Canadian politicians seem satisfied with what's currently in place and that's there's currently no interest in opening the issue.
Bob Kosovsky, Ph.D. -- Curator, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts blog: http://www.nypl.org/blog/author/44 Twitter: @kos2 Listowner: OPERA-L ; EXLIBRIS-L ; SMT-ANNOUNCE ; SoundForge-users
- My opinions do not necessarily represent those of my institutions -
*Inspiring Lifelong Learning* | *Advancing Knowledge* | *Strengthening Our Communities *
On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 6:39 PM, Jan Gerlach jgerlach@wikimedia.org wrote:
Dear all
It was great to meet so many of you at Wikimania in Montreal!
I'm writing today to let you know that negotiations have started for a new NAFTA treaty between Mexico, the US, and Canada. The negotiations will also include copyright provisions, which we will keep an eye on. You can read more about what is to be expected in the negotiations in a blog post by the EFF https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/with-release-nafta-negotiating-objectives-our-new-infographic-makes-sense-it-all .
Best, Jan
==
Jan Gerlach Public Policy Manager Wikimedia Foundation 149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 jgerlach@wikimedia.org
Publicpolicy mailing list Publicpolicy@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/publicpolicy
Publicpolicy mailing list Publicpolicy@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/publicpolicy
publicpolicy@lists.wikimedia.org