Copyright Week

The CopyKat is a bit late brining in the news, but a trip to Holland intervened. Anyway, and better late than never, I should let you all know that to mark the anniversary of the anti-SOPA/PIPA protests, a number of organisations (including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Creative Commons, the American Library Association, the Medical Library Association, the Open Knowledge Foundation, and others) have organised Copyright Week, a 6-day event focusing on the discussion and promotion of a number of core principles that - they suggest - should inform copyright reform debate.

They are:

Day 1 - Transparency - Copyright policy must be set through a participatory, democratic and transparent process. It should not be decided through back room deals or secret international agreements.

Day 2 - Building and defending a robust public domain - The public domain is our cultural commons and a public trust. Copyright policy should seek to promote, and not diminish, this crucial resource.

Day 3 - Open access - The results of publicly funded research should be made freely available to the public online, to be fully used by anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Day 4 - You bought it, you own it - Copyright policy should foster the freedom to truly own your stuff: to tinker with it, repair it, reuse it, recycle it, read or watch or launch it on any device, lend it, and then give it away (or re-sell it) when you're done.

Day 5 - Fair use rights - For copyright to achieve its purpose of encouraging creativity and innovation, it must preserve and promote ample breathing space for unexpected and innovative uses.

Day 6 - Getting copyright right - A free and open Internet is essential infrastructure, fostering speech, activism, new creativity and new business models for artists, authors, musicians and other creators. It must not be sacrificed in the name of copyright enforcement.

More from Eleonora on the IPKat here http://ipkitten.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/its-copyright-week-but-also-time-to.html

"Two years after the anti-piracy bill SOPA sparked protests from activists concerned about Internet freedom, issues around what can be done to limit activity online continue to rage on." More here
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/sopa-two-years-later-fight-over-internet-legislation-left-lasting-2D11943949