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Bad copyright advice ‘stunts learning’
Bad copyright advice ‘stunts learning’
By Frances Williams in Geneva
Published: February 20 2006
Poor countries are being wrongly advised to enact tougher copyright laws than required by international treaties, making access to copyright publications prohibitively expensive, Consumers International charged on Monday.
The non-governmental organisation said all 11 Asian countries it had studied, including China, India and Malaysia, granted copyright owners more protection than needed under global rules, and none provided all the permitted exemptions and flexibilities.
“As a result, copyrighted educational materials in these countries are expensive and consumers are being priced out of access to knowledge,” said a CI report. A book costing $27 in Indonesia was equivalent to a US student paying more than $1,000 in GDP per capita terms.
The London-based group, which links more than 230 consumer organisations in 113 countries, said the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organisation was giving “thoroughly inadequate” advice to poor nations. Such countries were already under pressure from the US and other industrialised countries to provide ever stronger copyright protection.
Wipo’s “misleading” draft laws were reinforcing this pressure by including rights not required by international treaties and by failing to point out flexibilities, especially those relating to use of copyright work for educational purposes.
The World Trade Organisation’s intellectual property agreement, the Berne Convention and the Wipo Copyright Treaty all have provisions for public access to knowledge. However, the CI study showed, for example, that none of the 11 Asian countries had laws allowing the use of copyright works in educational broadcasts and five unnecessarily restricted the number of copies that could be used as teaching materials.
Richard Lloyd, CI director-general, said: “In order to educate people, schools, universities and libraries need access to affordable teaching and learning materials . . . Wipo’s actions are a disservice to developing countries.”
A Wipo spokeswoman said the agency presented countries with a range of options they were free to follow, adapt or ignore.
User Comments
(These do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of this site)
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CopyrightLaw...
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Date: February 21, 2006 @ 10:38 PM
WIPO sucks as much as US copyright laws.
WIPO should WIPO its own butt. |
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goldenpi
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Date: February 22, 2006 @ 12:31 PM
Thats because WIPO was responsible for many of the US copyright laws. |
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OldCodger
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Date: February 26, 2006 @ 6:00 AM
Copyright International said the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization was giving thoroughly inadequate advice to poor nations. Such countries were already under pressure from the U.S. and other industrialized countries to provide ever stronger copyright protection.
And if WIPO has emphasized strong options and barely mentioned some others, this IS tantamount to distortion and bad advice.
Sometimes it's not only WHAT is presented, but HOW, dear WIPO spokeswoman! (Hey, WIPO, I read your defensive response.)
Oh, I have to slap my typing hand to try to stop it from writing how wrong-headed the concept of "intellectual property" is. (It's a misnomer that should be called intellectual IDEAS, not intellectual property!)
Serious question to ask any WIPO official: Can a brain create tangible property?
Hmm, maybe I'll try to think my house into a mansion.
Or mentally create an extra acre of land for my back yard.
Oh, wait, perhaps I could use some coaching from a WIPO official to do that, since I'm not really sure how that kind of magic can be done.
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OldCodger
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Date: February 26, 2006 @ 6:08 AM
“Sometimes it seems as if half the world has gone mad. . .
and the other half is doomed to have to contend with their crap.” — OldCodger |
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OldCodger
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Date: February 26, 2006 @ 6:19 AM
"WIPO sucks as much as U.S. copyright laws."
"That's because WIPO was responsible for many of the U.S. copyright laws."
Good point. It would be instructive for people to research where WIPO's impetus came from (who all was really pushing for that international treaty in the first place). Then they would learn the source of the problem.
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