Copyright and Related Rights

The new Act was approved July 14th, 2016 by the House of Representatives of Liberia and was published past July 22nd, 2016. It is noteworthy that it has received unanimous approval by the Liberian legislators, a decision which was based on a report issued by a join commission with members of the areas of commerce, industry and justice.

Kickass Torrents (KAT) is one of the largest file sharing websites in the world that has allowed people to copy and distribute more than $1 billion worth of media. Since its inception in 2008, KAT has provided a directory that allows users to download TV shows, music, movies, videogames and other types of media. It is estimated that the aggregation of media that has circulated the website to be worth $1 billion.

Canadian popstar Justin Bieber and American music producer Skrillex are being sued by an indie pop singer that performs under the stage name White Hinterland due to an alleged copyright violation.

Following several months of political and social unrest, the Republic of Burundi appears to be returning to normality and regaining its commercial and financial interests. A gesture that demonstrates Burundi’s firm commitment is the nation’s recent adherence to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and to the WIPO Copyright Treaty.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation informed that Burundi had deposited the instruments of accession with the organisation on the 12th of January of 2016.

The story of Naruto, which is the name given to an Indonesian macaque ape who rose to fame after taking a series of perfectly framed ‘selfies’ with a camera continues to widen its controversies with regard to copyright laws.

In the last six years, VW has been cheating on the emissions testing for its cars. The cars' software was able to detect when they were being tested, changing their engines to look much cleaner than they were. This scandal that has been stirred the world, also has great effects in the Intellectual Property field.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has teamed up with Latinstock and Cheil Spain to create “Animal Copyrights”, the first Image Database whose authorship is exclusively owned by different species of animals. This initiative includes rare images from the animal’s point of view, which according to WWF, has the aim of “presenting the world from their point of view is the best way to put ourselves in their position”.

Past July 9th, the European Parliament voted 445 to 65 (with 32 abstentions) against a proposal to restrict the freedom of panorama in the European Union, maintaining the status quo.

Freedom of Panorama consists on a limit to Copyright Law and that permits someone to take photographs, make paintings or videos of other works that are permanently located in a public space (such as sculptures or architectural works), without the need to acquire a license that states the consent of the owner of the work that is displayed publicly.

The Court of First Instance of Turin has ordered a preliminary injunction regarding the protection of moral rights of the author of a work protected under copyright. The case was brought before the court by Riccardo Pagani and the defendant was his former employer Leo Burnett Company Srl.

After the new European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, the new the German politician and member of the Christian Democratic Union, Günther Oettinger, took office, the European Copyright Society issued a letter claiming for a unification of the European Copyright Law.