Union for the Public Domain

The first meeting of the WIPO Provisional Committee for Proposals Related to a Development Agenda (PCDA) meets from 20 February to 24 February 2006 in Geneva and Judit Rius Sanjuan is representing Union for the Public Domain.

New proposals from Chile, Colombia, United States and the 15 countries of the Friends of Development have been presented and hopefully will be discussed during the following 4 days. Today, the countries' delegations presented the different proposals (including the African Group Proposal from the 3IIM) and made general statements. The chairman, Ambassador Gauto from Paraguay, seems committed to force substantive discussions. Let's see if the US and the European Union allow him.

For the moment, the best coverage on the first day can be found at Thiru’s Blog and IP Watch.

It is worth mentioning that two reports have been released today: One from Consumers International on Copyright and access to knowledge and another from 3D on Intellectual Property, Development and Human Rights: How Human Rights Can Support Proposals for a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Development Agenda.

To be continued...

13 October 2005

Dear Senators Bill Frist, Harry Reid, Arlen Specter, Patrick J. Leahy, and Representatives Dennis Hastert, Nancy Pelosi, James Sensenbrenner, Jr., and John Conyers, Jr.

RE: Request for Public consultations regarding Webcasting treaty proposal at WIPO

We are writing to ask that Congress insist that the United States negotiators block a diplomatic conference at WIPO that would create a new Intellectual Property Right for Broadcasting and Webcasting Organizations until a federal register notice requests public comment on the costs and benefits of the proposal.

The treaty proposal is complex and will have far-reaching consequences. But few US firms or members of the public are even aware of the proposal. Moreover, the U.S. government agencies responsible for WIPO negotiations on the treaty have not yet adequately analyzed even the most basic issues, including, for example, the impact of the treaty on the Internet, or the required changes in U.S. law.

Update from Geneva WIPO IIM-3: Day 1

The third Inter-Sessional Intergovernmental Meeting on a Development Agenda for WIPO began today in Geneva. This is the third round of negotiations on the Development Agenda, since it was proposed at the last meeting of the General Assembly in September and the last one before the next Assembly meeting. This meeting is especially crucial since the IIM is required to submit a final report with its recommendations, for approval by the Assembly and this is its last opportunity to formulate a coherent plan of action on the Development Agenda.

Brazil seems to have made its intentions for the IIM-3 very clear on the morning of Day 1, when it submitted a proposal on behalf og the Group of Friends of Development, proposing a 'Draft Decision of the IIM'in writing, covering the proposals previously highlighted by the Group. This proposal is likely to be reasonably controversial, and one hopes matters dont come down to a vote, along lines of the 12th SCCR that ended in confusion. All the same, should the Brazilian proposal go through, it would be a major victory for the Friends of Development. Among its six points listed, is one which requires the WIPO to 'immediately initiate a process to consider measures designed to improve the participation of civil society and public interest NGOs in WIPO activities'.

IP-Watch reports that the U.S. is opposing a proposal by Brazil for WIPO to negotiate an access to knowledge treaty. The report says that the EU is a "wildcard" in the debate because they have not explicitly rejected an A2K treaty.

UPD board member Shyamkrishna Balganesh is representing Union for the Public Domain in Geneva for this week's Development Agenda meeting. He will be posting UPD's statement shortly.

For coverage of the developments as they unfold check out IP Watch, the A2K civic space, and the A2K discussion list.

Advocates of a development agenda at WIPO, including Union for the Public Domain and its allies, made significant headway at a series of meetings held this month.

• IP Watch has the best narrative coverage.
• Great notes are available on the A2K listserv.
• UPD's two proposals are also on the listserv.
• Becky Hogge's interview with Cory Doctorow sums it all up very nicely.

Copyright reports that the U.S. is now circulating a paper that suggests narrowing the goals of the WIPO development agenda to an Internet-based database to bring together "donors and recipients of IP development assistance."

The report is based on an article by Sangeeta Shashikant published 24 March 2004 in the South-North Developmenht Monitor that is unfortunately behind password protection.

Shashikant reports:

Stating that WIPO already has a "robust development agenda" in
all its work, the draft paper by the US clearly ignores and
sidesteps the demands of the proponents of a "development agenda"
in WIPO.

Those demands, as elaborated in the Development Agenda proposal
by Brazil and Argentina (WO/GA/31/11, dated 27 August 2004) and
later co-sponsored with 12 other developing countries, include an
amendment to the WIPO Convention (1967), a reorientation of the
content of present proposals in treaties now being negotiated at
WIPO, the establishment of new pro-development treaties and a
change in WIPO's technical assistance activities.

In contrast to this reform programme, the US paper proposes that
WIPO continue to "promote intellectual property around the world"
as its way of fostering development. Its only new suggestion is
the creation of a "WIPO Partnership Program", an Internet-based
database to bring together "donors and recipients of IP
development assistance."

EFF's Cory Doctorow has written a groundbreaking paper on how DRM will undermine access to knowledge in the developing world:

The "DRM hypothesis" is that the public is dishonest, and will do dishonest things with cultural material if given the chance. DRM is deployed in order to force dishonest customers to behave honestly and buy media and to limit their activities to those that are authorized by rightsholders.

For this to work, it must be impossible for a potential customer for media to locate a non-DRM copy of their chosen movies, books, games or music. If a dishonest customer for an ebook can download an un-restricted version of a book that is otherwise available in a restricted DRM format, she surely will.

But DRM is simply not very good at doing this job. Because DRM is based on "security through obscurity" -- that is, in hiding from a user the way that it works -- it is inevitably broken in short order and the materials that it covers are put on the Internet where anyone can download them.

Indeed, there has never been a single piece of DRM-restricted media that can't be downloaded from the Internet today. In more than a decade of extensive use, DRM has never once accomplished its goal.

UPD was a co-signer to the report.

This is your WIPO Democracy Update:

• The group of fourteen developing nations that introduced the Development Agenda issued a statement yesterday rejecting the outcome of a recent regional meeting in Casablanca. They argue that the WIPO Director General overstepped his authority in organizing a regional consultation that led to substantive recommendations. Regional consultations are less democratic because they happen in far-flung places of the world that civil society NGOs generally don't have the budget to reach, there is no requirement that a diverse array of countries be invited, and the press rarely covers the meetings.
• EFF has issued a press release highlighting that "Last week, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced that it will shut out most public interest organizations at two important meetings devoted to intellectual property and development. As a result, WIPO delegates from 182 nations will discuss these issues without hearing from many of the world's best-qualified experts." Union for the Public Domain has applied for accreditation to attend these meetings and is waiting for a response.

Civil society NGOs are up in arms over WIPO's recent announcement that WIPO will not allow "ad hoc" observers to participate in the upcoming meetings on the development agenda. Union for the Public Domain and several other groups have relied on ad hoc accreditation in order to stand up for the public domain, advise countries, and transmit notes on negotiations over the WIPO Broadcasters' Treaty.

More on this at LawMeme and Copyfight...