[WSIS CS-Plenary] WIPO denies ad hoc NGO
observor statusfor April Development Agenda meeting
Shari Steele
ssteele at eff.org
Fri Feb 18 18:28:54 GMT 2005
Milton and Jamie.
I couldn't agree more. I would love to see greater
communication/coordination between the groups working at the various
international norm setting bodies. We all win. I look forward to further
discussion on ways we can make this happen well.
Shari
At 05:48 AM 2/18/2005, James Love wrote:
>On the IPR front, WIPO is the most important normative body. But of
>course it often is important to address norm setting in other bodies, like
>the WHO, WTO, UNESCO, UNCTAD, WSIS, UNDP, UNCTAD, Hague Conference, OECD,
>ITU, UN Committees on Human Rights, etc, etc......, as well as regional or
>local strategies. (right owners are certainly engaged everywhere). I
>hope Milton understands that *none* of the groups working on WIPO issues
>are ignorant or indifferent to the plethora of fora for IPR issues. We
>(CPTech) now have a full time staff of 7 and maintain offices in
>Washington, DC, London and Geneva, and spent a lot of time in regional
>trade negotiations, bilateral trade disputes (I just returned from Brazil
>this morning on discussions about patents on AIDS drugs). I will say
>that anyone who is serious about global IPR norm setting should attend
>some WIPO standing committee events, and get to know personally many of
>the national government delegates who follow these issues. Our own
>discussions on the WSIS IPR language have been directly with national
>governments, building upon relationships that were began in WTO and WIPO
>negotiations. Many of the WIPO Delegations are surprised at the (until
>recently) low level of civil society NGO activity at WIPO, compared for
>example with the WTO or WSIS. This has been changing recently, and hence,
>it is alarming that the WIPO Secretariat is seeking to restrict access to
>meetings by civil society groups.
>
>Coordination among groups working on global IPR issues is important, and
>it has been improving quite a bit in the last 5 years. If you look for
>example at the signatures to the Geneva Declaration on the Future of WIPO
>or the new letter on the medical R&D treaty (to be sent next week), there
>is now much overlap between different groups (libraries, free software,
>access to medicine, open access publishing, consumers organizations,
>leading academics, development groups, cyber rights,etc). There is of
>course, more to be done, and we welcome suggestions about how this can be
>best accomplished.
>
>
> Jamie
>
>
>Milton Mueller wrote:
>>Hi, Shari
>>I hope I did not imply that EFF should not be working in WIPO - it
>>should, and everyone appreciates that work. Also, I do not mean to imply
>>that EFF must stretch its resources to become as involved in WSIS/WGIG as
>>we are here. We all know that is not possible. Everyone needs to focus
>>their efforts on one thing or another.
>>What we'd like to see is greater recognition and coordination of
>>campaigns across venues. We have had a debate/dialogue here about the
>>role of IPR issues in the WGIG and some have contended that the whole
>>thing should be left to the WIPO forum. They have, I think, failed to
>>understand the helpful and complementary effect that coordination across
>>WSIS/WGIG, WIPO, and other forums could have.
>>Dr. Milton Mueller
>>Syracuse University School of Information Studies
>>http://www.digital-convergence.org
>>http://www.internetgovernance.org
>>
>>>>>ssteele at eff.org 02/16/05 2:59 PM >>>
>>Hi Milton.
>>WIPO's decision to reject ad hoc observers is terrible, and EFF plans to
>>publicly criticize this. But I believe our work at WIPO has been worth
>>the time and effort we've put in, and I think our decision to focus
>>resources there has been a good one. We're not fighting the
>>international IP battle at WIPO alone and never have been. We've been
>>working in a more focused way on free trade agreements, and we've
>>recently dipped our toe into UNESCO's cultural diversity proceedings. We
>>believe that we can be effective in all of these fora, and we'll continue
>>to focus our efforts there.
>>EFF has stretched our limited resources as far as we can at this point,
>>and I don't believe we'd be able to be as effective at any of the things
>>we're doing if we added WSIS to our queue. I'm glad you're there
>>fighting the good fight, because I know the work there is no less important.
>>Shari
>>
>>At 09:14 AM 2/16/2005, Milton Mueller wrote:
>>
>>>So, now maybe CPTech, EFF and others will understand better why it is
>>>necessary for them to help us push the WGIG into linking internet
>>>governance and ipr issues. This battle cannot be fought in WIPO alone,
>>>because the playing field is tilted (deliberately).
>>>
>>>
>>>Dr. Milton Mueller
>>>Syracuse University School of Information Studies
>>>http://www.digital-convergence.org
>>>http://www.internetgovernance.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>>martin_olivera at yahoo.com.ar 2/16/2005 9:10:57 AM >>>
>>>
>>>FYI
>>>
>>>--- James Love escribió:
>>>
>>>>WIPO has apparently decided to reject applications
>>>>for ad hoc observor
>>>>status for the April Development Agenda meeting.
>>>>That will leave a very
>>>>large number of speaking slots for right-owner NGOs,
>>>>and very few for NGOs
>>>>representing development groups, free software, or
>>>>consumer interests.
>>>>Perhaps a letter should be drafted to ask the WIPO
>>>>Secretariat to change
>>>>its position on this issue, in order to permit
>>>>groups concerned about
>>>>development and IP to attend. I note also that few
>>>>developing country
>>>>NGOs have permanent NGO status at WIPO.
>>>>
>>>>Jamie
>>>>
>>>>--
>>>>A2k mailing list
>>>>A2k at lists.essential.org
>>>>http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k
>>>
>>>=====
>>>SOLAR Software Libre Argentina
>>>http://www.solar.org.ar
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
>>Shari Steele
>>Executive
>>Director ssteele at eff.org
>>Electronic Frontier
>>Foundation 415.436.9333 (voice)
>>454 Shotwell
>>Street 415.436.9993 (fax)
>>San Francisco, CA 94110
>>_______________________________________________
>>Plenary mailing list
>>Plenary at wsis-cs.org
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>>
>
>--
>James Love, Director, CPTech, http://www.cptech.org
>
>Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC
>PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036, USA
>Tel.: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176
>
>Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva
>1 Route des Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
>Tel: +41 22 791 6727
>
>Mobile +1.202.361.3040
>james.love at cptech.org
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Shari Steele
Executive
Director ssteele at eff.org
Electronic Frontier
Foundation 415.436.9333 (voice)
454 Shotwell
Street 415.436.9993 (fax)
San Francisco, CA 94110
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