[Commons-Law] Access to Knowledge Meeting - Geneva

[TAHIR AMIN]

Dear All,

 

This is a belated posting following my attendance at the Access to Knowledge (A2K) meeting in Geneva on 3-4 February, organized by the Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech), Third World Network (TWN) and the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA). Some of you may be familiar with the debate, but for those who are not, the following is a brief summary and introduction.

 

To provide some background to the meeting, at the WIPO General Assembly meeting in September-October 2004, the governments of Argentina and Brazil submitted a proposal for the ‘Establishment of a Development Agenda for WIPO’, which was co-sponsored by various other developing countries. Some of the proposals were specifically directed at the special concerns of the developing countries, while others were efforts to re-direct WIPO to give more weight to general consumer and public rights interests in matters pertaining to copyright, patents and other IPRs. Included within the proposals for a Development Agenda is a proposal for a ‘Treaty on Access to Knowledge’. The WIPO General Assembly issued a decision in October that creates a rapid evaluation of the Development Agenda and the meeting was designed to follow up on this and in preparation for important forthcoming meetings in April/May 2005, and the scheduled report from the WIPO Secretariat by 30 July 2005 for consideration in
 September.

 

The meeting was attended by researchers, academics, public interest groups (including librarians) and diplomats to discuss how copyright and patent laws are restricting access to knowledge with a view to formulating a strategy going forward and developing what the A2K Treaty should cover. The discussions were also based around proposals put forward by many developing countries at the Development Agenda, notably to extend the exceptions and limitations to copyright with the aim to bring about more balance between the interests of copyright holders and users.

 

Initial sessions related to the nature and form that the A2K Treaty should take. The main debating points were: whether it is sufficient to think of access to knowledge in terms of expending exceptions and limitations to existing copyright and patent laws, thus recognising IPRs are the main rights with some exceptions recognising the need for public interest, or should the treaty be based on a human rights model whereby access to knowledge is recognised and defined in any treaty as the primary right and rights of IPR holders as secondary. Many agreed that the focus should be on the expansion of the exceptions and limitations in the existing IP regimes to bring them into line with public interest, albeit both approaches could be adopted, though reservations were expressed as to whether such an approach would displace or conflict with the existing frameworks for human rights. 

 

Participants then presented various proposals for expanding the exceptions and limitations to copyright and patents, which were discussed for their practicability and ways in which they could be improved. Many of the suggestions discussed, and subsequent ongoing discussions, can be found at the following address  http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/a2k/ or by visiting http://www.cptech.org/.

 

Also discussed was the relevance of the Appendix to the Berne Convention, namely ‘Special Provisions Regarding Developing Countries’. The discussion centered on whether the Appendix serves any function today given its lack of implementation by developing countries and the reasons for this, and whether it should be removed or re-drafted as an alternative/back up to any A2K Treaty.

 

The meeting ended with strategies on how to move the debate forward within the various fora, namely, WIPO, WTO, regional trade agreements and the U.N agencies, and that it should not concentrate solely on the South, as access to knowledge is also an issue for the North. 

 

The latest position is that WIPO has reduced the number of NGO’s able to participate in the forthcoming meetings as well as putting a cap on the number of delegates from permanent NGO delegations to debate the Development Agenda. This is likely to ensure that the IPRs owners dominate proceedings and goes against the original nature of the Development Agenda proposal.

 

For those of you who are interested, it is worth looking at the proposals suggested for an A2K Treaty at the link provided and it would be useful to open a discussion here, particularly suggestions at what an A2K Treaty should like taking into account practical examples of difficulties encountered in accessing information.

 

Tahir 


		
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