[WSIS CS-Plenary] Conference Intellectual Property Right, Dec 14-17, Brisbane, Australia

[Jan Servaes]

Hi all,

Referring to the current discussion on IPR, may I kindly draw your 
attention to our International Conference on

 Intellectual Property Rights, Communication and the Public Domain in 
the Asia-Pacific Region

 14-17 December 2004

 Brisbane, Australia
 
co-hosted by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC)
&
the School of Journalism and Communication, The University of Queensland

More info at http://www.sjc.uq.edu.au/ipr/

Best

Jan

On 20/09/2004, at 5:20 AM, Chris Nicol wrote:

> Hi,
>
> 1) This discussion about IP is very interesting and I echo the comments
> made by several people that we should continue it in a constructive 
> way.
>
> On Sat, 2004-09-18 at 19:27, Robin Gross wrote:
>> 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.
>
> 2) I agree too. Whether or not you agree with Richard Stallman about 
> not
> using the term "intellectual property" (he does us a great favour by
> insisting that we should not confuse the various areas that are grouped
> under the term), the issues themselves will (and I think should) come 
> up
> in the WSIS IG context. As has been suggested, there is some chance of
> influencing the results here, so it would be a pity to miss the
> opportunity.
>
> 3) My own opinion, and what I draw from the discussion, is that there 
> is
> a great need to open up debate about the issues on many different
> fronts. WIPO is an obvious one, and we should certainly be discussing
> how to intervene there, how to support developing countries, etc. And
> the campaign about patenting software in the European Union was
> surprisingly successful, although we'll soon see how long that lasts.
>
> But not only official international bodies. Civil society has a lot of
> forums where these issues can be (and have been) brought up, such as 
> the
> World/European/Americas Social Forums. National and local events too.
> And unless civil society as a whole becomes aware of and concerned 
> about
> such issues (not only IP and IG, but other internet and IS issues), we
> will have very little success in improving the situation, because we
> (the civil society part of WSIS) are very few compared with the size of
> the  tasks facing us.
>
> The fight is not won or lost in one battle. If we are to have some
> impact, it will take years of work, and we'll need to become greater in
> numbers and allies. The Working Group is a start.
>
> Regards,
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>> 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.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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>
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======================================
Professor Jan Servaes
Head
School of Journalism and Communication
University of Queensland
St.Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Tel: +61 7 3365 6115 or 3088
Fax: +61 7 3365 1377
Email: j.servaes at uq.edu.au
URL: http://www.uq.edu.au/journ-comm/
============================================

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