The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has welcomed the release of the Special 301 Report by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). The Report identifies significant copyright concerns and market-access barriers facing U.S. rights holders in key markets and highlights particular issues in Canada. The Report is a critical tool for lawmakers to help remove barriers that impede the ability of U.S. copyright owners to compete in foreign markets.
The report gives particular emphasis to the harm caused to the educational publishing sector in Canada because of the overbroad fair dealing exception pertaining to education uses, adopted in 2012. As AAP has previously noted, there has been a dramatic drop in licensing revenue for publishers and authors and a decline in textbook acquisitions across the K-12 market since the law was changed. The Report urges Canada to ‘reform this aspect of its copyright regime, during the forthcoming Copyright Modernization Act review, to ensure that creators are fully compensated for their works.’
The Report addresses other market opportunities and challenges for publishers with the ongoing growth of digital formats and mobile marketplaces. The report calls for China to increase enforcement against persistent online piracy, including unauthorised access to scientific, technical and medical journals, and to adopt measures necessary to correct the ‘structural impediments to effective IPR enforcement’; Russia to increase enforcement of IPR, especially related to counterfeit goods and online piracy, by investigating and prosecuting the owners of the large commercial sites selling pirated material; and India to address the increased levels of piracy, as ‘India’s overall levels of IP enforcement remain deficient, and the lack of uniform progress across the country.’
The 2017 Special 301 Report from USTR is available online at https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/intellectual-property/special-301/2017-special-301-review.
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