White Papers
By William Baude, Julien Hofman, Eddan Katz, Katherine McDaniel, Andrew Rens
and Chris Riley
Model Language for Exceptions and Limitations to Copyright Concerning Access
to Learning Materials in South Africa
South Africa’s current copyright law, the apartheid-era Copyright Act
of 1978, remains largely indifferent to development objectives such as increasing
public access to educational materials. While it must comply with international
copyright law, the Act fails to fully exploit the flexibilities available in
the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO’s) Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In this article, we present
proposed model language which could be used to incorporate exceptions and limitations
to copyright into South African copyright law. We give provisions for fair use/fair
dealing in education, adaptation of material for the disabled, and translations
of material. Our proposed exceptions would greatly increase public access to
learning materials while remaining within the boundaries of the “three-step
test” of article 13 of TRIPS governing exceptions to copyright. A comparative
analysis of other national copyright solutions is offered for each provision.
By Eddan Katz and Laura DeNardis
Best Practices for Internet Standards Governance (2006)
This paper is a contribution to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a new United Nations sponsored forum for multi-stakeholder Internet policy dialogue to convene in Athens, Greece, on October 30-November 2, 2006. Katz and DeNardis describe how Internet standards are a central apparatus of Internet governance with far reaching economic, political, and technical consequences. Despite the multi-stakeholder importance of standards, the mosaic of organizations involved in Internet standards setting exhibit disparate levels of participatory and informational openness and many do not adhere to principles of due process and consensus. This paper attempts to elevate the importance of Internet standards setting within the Internet governance context and proposes best practices in standards development based on the IGF's four thematic principles of openness, diversity, security, and access. Katz and DeNardis also propose the possibility that international governance bodies can help safeguard multi-stakeholder interests by developing a legitimating system of accreditation for standards setting organizations.
By Marvin Ammori
Public Opinion and Freedom Of Speech (2006)
This white paper addresses the relationship between public opinion about freedom of speech and the United States Supreme Court's First Amendment doctrines. The paper considers public opinion across a wide range of free speech controversies the Supreme Court has addressed in recent decades. The paper reaches two main conclusions:
(1) Public opinion and the Supreme Court's protection of free speech are connected over the long run in significant ways. Public opinion's influence on the Court seems more substantial and well-supported than the Court's influence on public opinion. While the public is not anti-speech in general, for certain types of speech (such as offensive speech or media speech), the public may be less speech-protective than the Court. As a result, public opinion may help undermine--or buttress--exiting speech protection for certain speech categories or during certain periods.
(2) The common assumption of a large discrepancy between individuals' abstract and specific support for freedom of speech appears inaccurate. The public in fact supports freedom of speech in ways largely consonant with existing free speech doctrine. Namely, the public seems most to value speech that it understands to promote an informed citizenry and democratic self-governance. Although the public would not protect every category of speech the Supreme Court protects, sometimes that is because it is often not clear to the public how protecting those categories furthers the underlying purposes of freedom of speech.
Given these conclusions, the paper proposes educational initiatives to strengthen public support for freedom of speech. These initiatives aim to build on the public's existing commitments to free speech and show how protecting journalism and forms of dissident and unpopular speech would help contribute to democracy and self-governance, and thus serve the interests of ordinary citizens in the long run.
By Jack Balkin
By Nimrod Kozlovski