[WSIS CS-Plenary] [CRIS Info] URGENT: support CRIS comments on UNESCO cultural diversity convention

[Liss Jeffrey]

Thanks.
Neither this note nor the CRIS link cited below contains links to the draft 
Unesco convention.
Would it not be better to encourage us to support this campaign by reading 
the draft in question?
We will gladly add this appeal to the http://wsis.ecommons.ca
Canadian civil society wsis - smsi site, and will go hunt down the relevant 
Unesco documents.
Signing letters of protest without reading the relevant object of protest 
does not - in our view - help our cause in the end.

Thanks
Liss Jeffrey,PhD
Director, eCommons/agora project
www.ecommons.net


At 12:31 PM 11/11/2004, you wrote:

>*please forward widely*
>
>
>UNESCO is currently drafting a new international agreement on cultural 
>diversity: the Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural 
>Contents and Artistic Expressions.
>
>This Convention was originally designed to ensure that culture, in the age 
>of globalized culture industries, is not reduced to a commodity. Its aim 
>is to allow each country to implement cultural, media, and communications 
>policies that foster cultural diversity.
>
>However, some governments have proposed dangerous revisions that would 
>transform the draft Convention into an instrument that expands corporate 
>ownership of culture.
>
>The campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS) is 
>calling on civil society organizations to join us in taking the following 
>stand on the Convention:
>
>     * First, the Convention must not be made subordinate to existing or 
> future trade agreements. To do so would defeat its purpose.
>
>     * Second, it should be designed to not only protect diversity of 
> national and regional cultural industries, but to protect the cultural 
> diversity and the communication rights of all peoples.
>
>     * Third, it must balance any references to the protection of 
> intellectual property rights with reference to protection of the cultural 
> commons. Otherwise, references to intellectual property rights should be 
> removed altogether.
>
>Based on these points, on November 15th the CRIS campaign will submit 
>concrete suggestions to UNESCO for changes to the draft Convention.
>
>Please take the time to read the CRIS comments and add your organization 
>to the list of signatories.
>
>The CRIS comments, and a form for adding your signature, can be found 
>here: http://www.mediatrademonitor.org/cris-unesco.php
>
>
>Thank you,
>
>Sasha Costanza-Chock
>for the campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society
>
>
>contact:
>global AT freepress.net,
>(US) 1.510.655.7971
>
>_______________________________________________
>Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS)
>For more information see http://www.crisinfo.org/ act at crisinfo.org
>CRIS Info is a public list for information and questions about the 
>campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS).
>CRIS also has a Latin American regional list at: 
>http://comunica.org/mailman/listinfo/crisal_comunica.org
>________________________________________
>
>Crisinfo mailing list
>Send contributions to Crisinfo at comunica.org
>CRIS Info archives are at: 
>http://comunica.org/mailman/listinfo/crisinfo_comunica.org
>This list is provided courtesy of Comunica - http://comunica.org
>
>_______________________________________________
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>
>
>
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