Copyright and Bloggers - A Jordanian

Perspective

Rami Olwan

LLM Columbia University, New York, U.S

Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative

Industries and Innovation

A Presentation to the New Media and Law

Conference, Amman, Jordan
 Outline
• What are blogs and why they are important?
• What are the major legal risks in blogging?
• How does Jordanian Copyright Law protect blogs?
• Practical tips to protect Jordanian bloggers from copyright
liability.
• Does Jordanian Copyright Law encourage user- generated
activities?
• What are the main problems with the current state of
copyright law in Jordan?
• What does the future look like?
 What are Blogs?
- “A blog (short for web-log) is a user-generated website… that facilitate
interaction by allowing readers to post comments”.

- “They can be used for multitude of reasons, including:

• News;
• Political, literary and artistic commentary;
• Discussion of economic issues;
• Discussion of technological issues;
• Discussion of legal issues;
• Facilitating learning and scholarly discussion”;
• Business
• Government ;and
• Social networking
 Why are they Important?
- “They allow millions of people to easily publish their ideas, and millions
more to comment on them”.

- “Blogging has redrawn the line between private communication and

mass publication”.

- “Blogging is considered as a form of expression and a means to

maintain and build social connection”.

- “Sources estimate that there were up to 200 million blogs in 2006

(Blog Herald)”.

- “75 % of all blogs are written in English, Japanese or Korean”.

- “Blogging is very popular in Asia particularly China, India and Iran”.

 What are the Major Legal Risks?
- The major legal risks in blogging are:

• Defamation;

• Potential disclosure of trade secrets;

• Employment of liability issues; and

• Copyright infringement.
 Which Copyright Law is
Applicable?
- The current applicable law in Jordan is the Copyright Law No.
22 of 1999 as amended.

- It consists of 62 articles and corresponds to the international

copyright treaties to which Jordan is a signatory.

- It is based on the European copyright model (French) which

gives attention to authors’ moral rights.

- This is in contrast to the U.S. copyright model that

concentrates particularly on economic rights of the author.
 What Influenced the Development
of the Law?
- The main factors that influenced the development of
Jordanian Copyright Law include:
• Joining the Berne Convention (July 28, 1999);
• Joining the WTO on April 11, 2000 (136th member of the
WTO);
• Signing an FTA with the US on December 17, 2001
(JUSFTA);
• Joining the World Copyright Treaty (WCT) of 1996 (April 27,
2004); and
• Joining the WPPT of 1996 on May 24, 2004.
 How Jordan Changed its Law to Deal with
the Digital Revolution
- Jordan’s Copyright Law was amended on several
occasions:
• Protection of computer software (Article (3) (b) (8));
• Extended the rights of copyright owners to include the
right to control the online distribution of digital materials
(Article (9) (f));
• Included civil and criminal liability for the removal or
alteration of Electronic Rights Management Information
(ERMI) (Watermarks) (Article 54);
• Included provisions on prohibiting the circumvention of
technological protection measures (TPMs) (Encryption)
(Article 55).
 Copyright Issues for Blogs
- “Reproduction/communication of text, images, audio”,
links, and videos in blogs.
- “Three potential levels of liability may arise:
• Blogger liability;
• Blog host corporation liability;
• Internet Service Provider (ISP) liability”.
- Limitations on Author’s Exclusive rights (Article 17):
• Quotation; and
• Criticism.
 Practical Tips for Jordanian
Bloggers
– Quote only a small portions of copyrighted works for quotation or criticism;
– Always credit the author and provide the full source of the URL;
– Consider providing links, instead of copying and pasting whole articles from
the internet;
– Seek permission when you can through licensing (e.g. traditional licenses or
Creative Commons);
– Don’t assume that works that are available online are not copyright protected
and are in the public domain for others to copy;
– Respond promptly to takedown notices from copyright owners or blog hosts;
– Provide appropriate disclaimers and terms of use whenever possible;
– Read the Jordanian Copyright Law and know your rights and limitations; and
– Ask a lawyer
 Jordanian Copyright Law (1)
- Jordanian Copyright Law protects blogs just like any other works provided that they are
innovative. Article 3 (A& D) provides as follows:
“Innovated literary, artistic and scientific works regardless of their kind, importance or the
purpose of their production shall enjoy protection by virtue of this law.
The protection shall encompass works which are expressed in writing, sound, drawing,
photography or movement and in particular:
1- Books, booklets or other written material”.
“Protection shall also encompass the collections of literary or artistic works such as
encyclopedias, selections and collected data whether or not collected in a machine readable
form. provided that such collections represent as to their selection or the arrangement of their
contents innovated intellectual works”.
- Article 8 of the Copyright Law gives authors moral rights. It provides as follows:
“Only the author has:

B- The right to make the decision regarding the publication of his work and the specification of

the mode and date of publication”.

 Jordanian Copyright Law (2)
- A blogger is not entitled to publish photos in his blog unless
he first obtains the consent of the people that their picture were
taken (Article 26);
- A Jordanian blogger can publish a photo in his blog of any
public figure without needing to obtain his consent or for a
public incident (Article 26);
- A Jordanian blogger could publish works owned by others in
his blog without obtaining their consent, provided that the
publication is for quotation, discussion and critique (Article 17).
 Problems with Copyright and the
internet
• “Permission - can be very difficult to obtain or
give:
– Practically - identifying the copyright owner(s) and
getting in contact with him is time consuming;
– Legally – knowing what to ask for and give;
– Economically – usually very expensive and time
consuming to clear copyrights from their owners; and
– Limitations – hard to understand”.
 Jordanian Copyright Law
• Does Jordanian Copyright Law
adequately deal with the digital revolution
and the internet?
• Should the Jordanian Copyright Law
accommodate and encourage user-
generated content? And if so, How?
 Problems with Jordanian Copyright
Law
Jordanian Copyright law is important. However, it:
• Does not reflect the ambitions of a developing country that
needs to have a modest copyright system that benefits from
the internet and the digital revolution;
• Does not encourage user- created content, as it is aligned
more toward copyright owners rather than users and the
public;
• Does not benefit fully from the flexibilities contained in
international copyright treaties (Berne, TRIPS and WCT);
• Stifles creativity and innovation by not including any
limitations on TPMs and RMI, as this is critical for the
development of IT research and IT sector in Jordan.
 What Does the Future look like?
- A revision to Article 3 of the Jordanian Copyright Law should be
seriously considered.
- A new limitation on author’s exclusive rights for creative and
transformative work should be introduced into the Jordanian Copyright Law
(and broaden the current list of limitations);
- Jordanian Copyright Law of 1999 should benefit fully from the flexibilities
contained in the international copyright treaties mainly Berne, TRIPS and
WCT;
- Jordanian bloggers should understand and use flexible licensing
regimes such as Creative Commons (CC) to make their work available for
sharing and reuse;
- Inserting new provision into the Jordanian Copyright law to protect
innocent ISPs from copyright liability; and
- Free and open source software (FOSS) should be seriously considered in
Jordan and the Arab world as they can bring many opportunities to the
region.
 References
- Kristie D. Prinz, Recent Developments in Blog Law, available at
www.prinzlawoffice.com/documents/Jun-14-2007_000.ppt

- Peter Black (ed), Copyright and New Technologies, available at

www.freedomtodiffer.com/freedom_to_differ/files/Copyright_and_New_ Technologies

- Jessica Coats, Creative Commons Clinic, CC Australia, 2007.

- Anthony Austin (ed), CCI Blog, Podcast, Vodcast and Wiki Legal Guide for Australia,
October 2008

- Participative Web and User- Created Content, OECD 2008, available at

http://www.oecd.org/document/40/0,3343,en_2649_34223_39428648_1_1_1_1,00.html
“Happy Blogging”
Thank-You