[WSIS CS-Plenary] [governance] Thinking about

[Robin Gross]

Yes I agree.  WSIS/WGIG could be an opportunity to push for that much 
needed reform.  Although it remains unclear to me how great of an 
opportunity.  WSIS/WGIG doesn't seem to have any real teeth at this stage.

And there is a bias in the way it will be structured.  I don't see how 
business can be justified an equal say with government and civil society 
in "Internet governance" issues.  Sure business concerns should be 
fairly taken account for.  But *equal* to government and civil society 
seems too much weight in my view.  When it comes to intellectual 
property issues, often the government is the puppet of the big IP 
holders, big business.  So there is reason to believe that a WGIG 
structured as it is could do more harm than good by taking up 
intellectual property issues.  But there is no way that it won't address 
these controversial issues.  So we must push for a positive agenda here. 
  And the fact that developing country governments aren't quite as 
beholden to US and EU IP holders together with a growing business 
constituency that is harmed by the max IP rules means that maybe the 
structure isn't so bad after all.  The jury is out.

But a concerted international effort to push for reform on intellectual 
property wrongs is undoubtable coalescing.  WSIS/WGIG could be a good 
forum for pushing for this reform.

Robin



Milton Mueller wrote:

> It should be clear that the wisest strategy is to work in BOTH
> arenas (WGIG and WIPO). Keeping silent on IPR within the 
> WGIG, or trying to 'play defense' by keeping it off the agenda, 
> automatically gives an advantage to those who would keep the 
> status quo or push for greater, stronger copyright, patent, 
> trademark protections. If we do not actively 'problematize'
> IPR within the framework of the WGIG, we have lost an
> irreplaceable opportunity. If some governments and the civ 
> soc advocates have already succeeded in injecting a more
> critical approach into the WIPO forums, there is reason
> to believe we could succeed in doing the same thing in WGIG.
> 
>  --MM
> 
> 
>>>>robin at ipjustice.org 09/17/04 4:58 PM >>>
>>
>>Vittorio:
>>
>>>so I am ready to
>>>trust whoever has experience of working there, to understand whether
> 
> it
> 
>>>would be easier to change the way WIPO works and win the fight there,
> 
> or try
> 
>>>to move the fight and win it elsewhere. In fact, among us we have a
> 
> huge
> 
>>>capital in terms of the experience necessary to work out good
> 
> strategies -
> 
>>>we only have to cooperate to exploit it well.
>>
>>Robin:
>>I am hopeful that we can begin to see some slow reform at WIPO.  I was
> 
> a 
> 
>>participant at the meetings in Geneva last week working exactly on this
> 
> 
>>goal.  There is no doubt that WIPO will have to become more balanced 
>>after the hard pounding it took from the top academics and policy 
>>makers.  There will be a Declaration that many of us have been working 
>>on led by Jamie Love that will be released in the coming weeks that
> 
> puts 
> 
>>strong international pressure on WIPO to reform.  Brazil and Argentina 
>>have issued a very powerful to challenge on these issues also in the 
>>last week weeks.  But WIPO is more than a 1000 person organization and 
>>will not move quickly and without constant prodding from us.
> 
> 
> 
> 
>