InfoJustice

Cautionary Tales About Collective Rights Organizations, Part 2

In 2013, we published Cautionary Tales About Collective Rights Organizations, 21 Michigan State Int’l L. Rev. 687 (2013). We acknowledged that properly regulated collective rights organizations (“CROs ...
InfoJustice

South African apex court recognises the “constitutional imperatives of equality and dignity for persons with disabilities” in landmark copyright judgment

On 7 May 2025, the Constitutional Court of South Africa handed down judgment in Blind SA v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others [2025] ZACC 9 (‘Blind SA II’). The judgment read-in an ...
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WIPO General Assembly Meeting on SCCR Expresses Consensus for Progress on Broadcast and L&E Instruments

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held its General Assembly (GA) this week, including a review of the progress and recommendations of the Standing ...
InfoJustice

The South African Copyright Amendment Bill at the Constitutional Court: Notes from the Presidential Referral of the Bill (Part I)

On 21 and 22 May 2025, the South African Constitutional Court heard the matter of Ex Parte President of the Republic of South Africa: In re Constitutionality of the ...
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The South African Copyright Amendment Bill at the Constitutional Court: Notes from the Presidential Referral of the Bill (Part II)

In Part I of this blogpost, I briefly set out the procedural history of the copyright reform process that led to the Presidential Referral of the Bill to the Constitutional Court. I also briefly ...
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Copyright Implications of the Relationship Between Generative Artificial Intelligence and Text and Data Mining

In the heated copyright discussions over generative artificial intelligence, the term “text and data mining” is sometimes used interchangeably with “machine learning” or the “ingestion of material” to ...
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Trade Secrecy and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Secret Lawmaking Meets Criminalization

Trade secrecy, arguably the most active but least understood and studied of intellectual property’s doctrines, is on the rise. Over the past two years, there has been increased legislative activity in ...
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“Taking Copyright’s Balance Too Seriously” Lokesh Vyas

Vyas discusses copyright’s “balance” metaphor, alleged to have originated in the 1785 British case Sayre v. Moore. This paper aims to contribute to the exploration of the genealogy of this concept in ...
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Disclaiming Designs: A Comment on the “Dotted Lines” Issue in the WIPO Design Law Treaty by Professor Sarah Burstein

In this blog post, leading Design Law Professor Sarah Burstein argues that the negotiating draft of the WIPO Design Law Treaty contains a little noticed provision, buried in its “regulations,” that ...
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Highlights from the USCO Report on the Economic Implications of Artificial Intelligence for Copyright Policy (Part 1: Output Phase)

In February 2025, the U.S. Copyright Office released the report “Identifying the Economic Implications of Artificial Intelligence for Copyright Policy: Context and ...
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The Fair Use/Fair Dealing Handbook

More than 40 countries with over one-third of the world’s population have fair use or fair dealing provisions in their copyright laws. These countries are in all regions of the world and at all levels ...
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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA HIGHLIGHTS THE URGENCY OF COPYRIGHT REFORMS

The cost of excluding billions of people in Africa and the Global South from access to knowledge could be huge for future generations. Knowledge-sharing in Africa is not always transactional, and the ...