Today the Australian Digital Alliance published new economic research, prepared by Lateral Economics, which find that making copyright more flexible and technology neutral will, over time, add $600m in annual productivity gains to the economy. You can access the reports and snapshot of their findings here. 

Last week the Australian Law Reform Commission released their much-anticipated Issues Paper for the Inquiry into Copyright and the Digital Economy. The Paper, the first formal publication of the 18 month Inquiry, poses 55 questions for anyone and everyone using, creating, accessing (or trying to access) copyright content in the online age.

Last Friday saw the latest in a trickle of leaks of the negotiating text from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. The subject of the latest leak is the proposed language on limitations and exceptions in the controversial intellectual property chapter of the agreement.

The 24th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) kicked off this week in Geneva. Among the topics up for discussion in this session are exceptions for libraries and archives, exceptions for educational institutions, protecting the rights of broadcasters, and an instrument providing access to copyright works for persons with a print disability.