Copyright Watch
Self-portrait
Copyright Watch collects and monitors copyright laws from all over the world. (http://www.copyright-watch.org/)
The details of copyright law used to be important for only a few in the creative industries. Now, with the growth of the Internet, we are all authors, publishers, and sharers of copyrighted works.
Our dream was to build a user-friendly resource of national copyright laws to help citizens of the world undertake comparative research. We wanted to raise awareness of the importance of balanced copyright law in the information society, and draw attention to points of commonality and of difference in countries' laws and legal traditions. We also wanted to create an information sharing resource, where copyright watchers could post information about proposed amendments to their own copyright laws, and understand the changes in others.
We hope that Copyright Watch will be a resource maintained and driven by the Access to Knowledge community and that copyright monitors in each country will help to keep this information up to date and relevant.
Finally, we hope that Copyright Watch will help document the importance of copyright to all aspects of cultural life and human freedom. Balanced and well-calibrated copyright laws are extremely important in our global information society. The smallest shift in the legal balance between the rights of copyright owners and users of copyrighted knowledge can destroy or enable business models, criminalize or liberate everyday behaviour, and transform or eradicate new technology. A law that is passed in one nation can quickly be taken up by others, through bilateral trade agreements, regional policy initiatives or international treaties. We all need to keep watch. (https://www.copyright-watch.org/content/about.html)
Description
Copyright Watch is dedicated to reviewing and monitoring copyright laws around the world. The project sprung out of the complexities in copyright law relevant to our current information society. The main purpose is to build a global resource on the state of copyright laws to help citizens of the world monitor, understand and make their own comparative research on national and foreign laws, while raising awareness of balanced copyright law and establishing criteria to differentiate regional procedures. The platform is also meant to be a forum for understanding changes and publishing proposals modifying existing copyright law.
This project was started from the Access to Knowledge community with support from the Innovarte Corporation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Information for Lybraries, International Federation of Library Associations and Institution, Professor Michael Geist, The Third World Network and Bangalore Centre for Internet and Society. Content research was done by members of the Electronic Information for Libraries, Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Copyright Advisory Office, Columbia University. Funding for the project’s creation was provided by the Open Society Institute (now Open Society Foundations).
Copyright Watch also endeavors to foster carefully balanced copyright law and its proper use, since misapplication can lead to serious consequences: it can destroy or enable business models, criminalize or liberate everyday behavior and transform or eradicate new technology.
The project’s blog also reports on proposals, issues and changes to copyright law around the world, helping to understand the difficulties involved in issuing or changing a law, its specifications or exemptions.
Links
URL: http://www.copyright-watch.org/
Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20150724232023/http://www.copyright-watch.org/
