Bigger end of year news: copyright reform

The UK government’s copyright modernization plans: “Modernising copyright - a modern, robust and flexible framework.”  Of particular note to me: like everyone sensible, and like the US before Justice Souter sent us on an unfortunate detour, the UK government proposes to treat parody, satire and pastiche together.  Still, it’s a far cry from full-fledged transformativeness, though there’s separate treatment for data mining by noncommercial entities and several other important exceptions.  The UK also proposes to prevent contracts from overriding these rights to the extent allowed by EU law.  Also, while the US tries to keep international obligations on disability limited to print, the UK government proposes to offer exceptions for every form of work and for every form of disability, because that’s the right thing to do.