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The group Public Knowledge, "a Washington DC based public interest group working to defend your rights in the emerging digital culture," (see http://www.publicknowledge.org/about) has made a bold (but not so new) proposal for the reform of copyright law.



According to their Web site (http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/2906), their Copyright Reform Act, which has five sections, is proposing to strengthen fair use, reform the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), so that circumvention of anti-copying technology is explicitly legal for lawful purposes, update copyright law to better fit with how digital technology functions, reform the anti-takedown provisions of the DMCA, and make music licensing easier for users of that content.



Copyfighter Cory Doctorow has an essay on his Web site (http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=188055) that speaks to this issue. There is a rather secretive copyright treaty, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), under development, and reform to the Copyright Act is especially important in view of this treaty. Cory's essay is a call to action about ACTA.



George Mason University Law School teaches a seminar in multinational IP, (also covering so-called "hard IP"--patents) which is located at: http://www.law.gmu.edu/assets/files/academics/schedule/2010/spring/HOUSEL_MultinationalIP-Syllabus.pdf. The PDF of the syllabus is full of links to materials and also references primary materials.



For some information from the other side of the intellectual property debate:



The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has some information about intellectual property: http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/, with links to additional material.



WIPO also has a collection of international copyright laws, at http://www.wipo.int/clea/en/, the WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook, at http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/iprm/index.html, and an e-booklet, Understanding Copyright and Related Rights, at http://www.wipo.int/freepublications/en/intproperty/909/wipo_pub_909.html#intro.

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