LOCKED IN DEBATE IN LONDON AND JAPAN

Copyright talk at QMIPRI

Next Monday (6 February) at 12.30pm Lior Zemer, Lecturer in Law at the University of Leicester and Visiting Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Law, will be speaking on copyright at QMIPRI. His subject is "A Riposte to Lockean Copyright Theorists".

John Locke (almost) live at QMIPRI

All are welcome and there’s no charge for attending but please RSVP to Ilanah. Full details are available here.

Japan examines copyright law on broadcasts

Asahi.com reports that the Japanese Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters is campaigning for revisions to the copyright law that will make it easier for ISPs to provide television programmes over the internet. Currently broadcasters need only pay fees to copyright owners after the programme is aired by conventional telelvision, but broadcasters and ISPs must obtain copyright clearance before showing any programme over the internet. The need for prior approval is said to have blocked the development of internet television services.

The proposed revision of the Copyright Law would redefine the distribution of TV programs offered to homes through communication facilities, including fiber-optic cables and broadband services, as "wired broadcasting," making a wider category of transmission types eligible for the ex post facto approval system. Any bill that might result from the Strategy HQ's work is expected in December 2007.

The IPKat thinks that this makes a lot of sense. It’ll open broadcasting up to competition and the distinction between conventional TV broadcasts and internet broadcasts doesn’t seem to be one based on principle.