Author Archives: Kris Kasianovitz

Global Copyright Policies Impact Us All!

On May 6, IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) posted this article:
“EU rejects international solution to library and archive copyright problems; causes collapse of WIPO meeting”

While FSGI’s focus in primarily on state government information, we are keeping an eye out for copyright discussion and policies across the globe that can support or detract from the work we are doing.

This particular WIPO discussion had to with copyright exceptions for libraries and archives; which according to the news coverage, the EU balked at.

See more coverage from IP Watch : “Hopes Dampened For Copyright Exceptions For Libraries/Archives At WIPO”

Take our Survey!

We created this survey for the participants of the NCSL Webinar on May 7.  It was designed to help us gain a better understanding of the participants views and actual policy environments in which they work, in terms of copyright of state agency publications.

The questions are a reflection of issues and real concerns that we have encountered in the literature, including case law, and when speaking with state agency staff.

We are interested in your responses, even after the Webinar! So if you were a participant and didn’t have a chance to fill it out please do so! We also want to encourage any one else to take this survey.  We value gaining a better insight into the issue of copyright and state government information.

The Goals of the Survey:
  • Gauge participants’ perceptions, knowledge and understanding of the the issue.
  • Gauge participants’ level concern about placing items in the public domain.
  • Determine if there is consensus for copyrighting specific types of state publications.
  • Raise awareness in order to move into action.

Carl Malamud will be testifying at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Scope of Copyright Protection for state laws and federally-mandated public safety codes.

Reposting from our affinity group Free Government Information :

Carl Malamud will be testifying at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Scope of  Copyright Protection On Tuesday, January 14, 2014 at 10AM. His testimony will be on the subject of Edicts of Government, including copyright assertions over state laws and federally-mandated public safety codes. He’s made his prepared statement available on his public.resource.org site.

Read the full post here:  http://freegovinfo.info/node/8071

There are many categories of state government publications, with state legislation and laws being an important set of materials for all citizens to access and use.  Carl Malamud’s testimony is spot on in terms the need to treat state laws in the same fashion as federal laws: “edicts of government have no copyright because such court opinions, statutes, regulations, and other pronouncements of general applicability belong to the people.”

Videos of CA State Legislative Proceedings – Public Domain?

A great example of legislative materials — video recordings in this case — and disagreement as to whether or not they are in the public domain.

Assembly preparing ‘cease and desist’ letter for Tim Donnelly campaign video
Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/11/assembly-administrator-preparing-cease-and-desist-letter-for-tim-donnelly-c.html#storylink=cpy

“It’s our understanding that once that video is aired publicly that it’s part of the public domain,” she said, adding that she was looking at the state Capitol at the moment and that “the taxpayers pay for that building.”