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Copyright & A2K Issues - 22 February 2018 (Pt. 1)

This is a free online international Information Service covering various topics, including copyright, plagiarism and other IP matters, Open Access, open publishing, open learning resources, institutional repositories, scholarly communication, digitization and library matters, mobile technologies, issues affecting access to knowledge (A2K), particularly in developing countries; WTO and WIPO treaties and matters; Free Trade Agreements and TRIPS Plus; useful websites, conference alerts, etc.  If you would like to subscribe to, or unsubscribe from,  this newsletter, please email  Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za .

Copyright & A2K Issues - 22 February 2018 (Pt. 2)

This is a free online international Information Service covering various topics, including copyright, plagiarism and other IP matters, Open Access, open publishing, open learning resources, institutional repositories, scholarly communication, digitization and library matters, mobile technologies, issues affecting access to knowledge (A2K), particularly in developing countries; WTO and WIPO treaties and matters; Free Trade Agreements and TRIPS Plus; useful websites, conference alerts, etc.  If you would like to subscribe to, or unsubscribe from,  this newsletter, please email  Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za .

Copyright & A2K Issues - 20 February 2018

This is a free online international Information Service covering various topics, including copyright, plagiarism and other IP matters, Open Access, open publishing, open learning resources, institutional repositories, scholarly communication, digitization and library matters, mobile technologies, issues affecting access to knowledge (A2K), particularly in developing countries; WTO and WIPO treaties and matters; Free Trade Agreements and TRIPS Plus; useful websites, conference alerts, etc.  If you would like to subscribe to, or unsubscribe from,  this newsletter, please email  Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za .

Copyright & A2K Issues - 13 February 2018

This is a free online international Information Service covering various topics, including copyright, plagiarism and other IP matters, Open Access, open publishing, open learning resources, institutional repositories, scholarly communication, digitization and library matters, mobile technologies, issues affecting access to knowledge (A2K), particularly in developing countries; WTO and WIPO treaties and matters; Free Trade Agreements and TRIPS Plus; useful websites, conference alerts, etc.  If you would like to subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, this newsletter, please email  Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za

Namibian Supreme Court outlaws ultra-long prison sentences

In an important new decision, Namibia’s highest court has held that judges in that country may not impose jail terms that are “longer than a life sentence”. Prisoners serving life may be considered for possible parole after 25 years, and the supreme court has now held that any sentence in which parole is not at least notionally possible after 25 years, would be unconstitutional. The court was dealing with an appeal in which a trial court had imposed sentences of well over 60 years. Some judges imposed ultra-long sentences as a way of ensuring that a prisoner never became eligible for parole, said the court, but it was unacceptable to impose any sentence that was “in effect far more severe than (a) life sentence”.

How closure of TV stations has narrowed democratic space in Kenya
How closure of TV stations has narrowed democratic space in Kenya

The  closure  of three leading television stations on January 30 2018 by the Communications Authority of Kenya sparked a huge outcry.

Copyright & A2K Issues - 15 December 2017
Copyright & A2K Issues - 12 December 2017
Copyright & A2K Issues - 14 December 2017
Indigenousness and peoples’ rights in the African human rights system: situating the Ogiek judgement of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Ricarda Rösch's article discusses the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights first indigenous rights case dealing with the expulsion of the Ogiek from their ancestral lands in the Kenyan Mau forest. The article highlights the judgement’s most interesting features in light of the ongoing debates surrounding indigenousness and indigenous rights in Africa.