Blogs
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The appearance of ‘Friction over Fan Fiction‘ an article in the July/August 08 of the Literary Review of Canada signals a new, mainstream concern with a burgeoning phenomenon. TIt also, without intending to, raises to important arguements for limitations to copyright which explicitly set out that fan fiction is permitted.
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In a previous post, the Traditions of Knowledge, I referred to the appropriation of traditional knowledge by means of industrial revolution intellectual property.
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Conventional intellectual property laws claim to confer rights only on knowledge is that is individually authored, reduced to material form and ‘original’. The antithesis of that modern knowledge paradigm is traditional knowledge which is by its nature traditional, communal and frequently oral. Some developing countries have adopted sui generis legislation that attempts to craft a regime appropriate for traditional knowledge. But if appropriation is carried out mostly by corporations head-quartered in developed countries, and appropriated knowledge is exploited in developed countries through the mechanisms of conventional intellectual property the sui generis legislation in the country of origin won’t work. This is exactly what seems to be going on.Developing nations including South Africa have advocated strongly for recognition of sui generis traditional knowledge rights in the global trade system through the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and World Intellectual Property Organisation. Developed country trade reps put the kibosh on this idea during the Doha round.
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Globalisation and Its Discontents has a far better description of globalisation than the World is Flat, which I have previously reviewed. This even though the book is primarily concerned with global financial governance, the IMF and the World Bank, and how they behave, especially in the developing world. Stiglitz contends that IMF’ policies have attempted to serve Wall Street have failed not only developing countries but the global economy and so the United States. The explanations of the economics is clear, and easy to follow. This is all the more remarkable since Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize winning economist, rather than a journalist or trade author.
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A putative bill which creates a system require patenting of tax payer funded research will be published today.
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Anyone living in a consumer society is likely to benefit from reading this book, finding it an insightful if disturbing expose of manipulation techniques employed by marketers, media and politicians. You will never trust a salesman again.
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According to a press release the International Standards Organisation has suspended publication of OOXML as an ISO standard during the appeal process.
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I have been hearing a lot lately about ACTA, a treaty which is being drafted at the behest of a handful of old economy monopolies. IPJustice has a useful anaylsis. ACTA is an accroym for Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Who could be against measures to prevent counterfieting? No doubt the name was chosen for exactly that reason, to imply that anyone who wishes to debate the provisions or even the necessity for the agreement. Its also sold as a trade agreement, which in some of the countries taking part in negociations means that executive sign-off is suffecient to bind that country, and the treaty need not pass scrutiny by the legislature.
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I have recently returned from Uganda. From 27 to 29 May 2008 I participated in the PALM Africa Workshop on alternative publishing models in Africa, which was hosted by the National Book Trust of Uganda (NABOTU). The participants in the workshop represented a wide range of types of organisations, including public and private sector publishers, and an equally wide range of competences, and attitudes toward alternative publishing models. The organisers of the workshop are to be congratulated on patiently and persistently explaining the potential benefits of alternative licensing. Experimenting with alternative publishing models offers a low cost, low risk way of testing the opportunities available to developing country publishers.
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I am in Kampala at a workshop hosted by the National Book Trust of Uganda on alternative publishing models, PALM Africa. The air is full of new ideas, emerging business models…change.
There is considerable promise that local publishers will be able to find new sources of sustainability and increase access to knowledge. These are important benefits of open access publishing models. There is another, often overlooked benefit of open access publishing models.
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Here is the full text of the South African Appeal iro the ISO OOXML process.
“Appeal from the South African national body regarding the outcome of the fast-track processing of DIS 29500 Office open XML
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In the midst of grim and troubling news about outbreaks of violence against Zimbabweans and Mozambicans, there is a good reason to be proud of being South African today.
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In many countries a basic monthly telephone subscription entitles the subscriber to free local calls. In other words, a subscriber pays a flat fee, and can make any number of phone calls within that area without paying any additional amount.
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Microsoft has announced that it intends future versions of Office to support Open Document Format, the international open XML document format used by other developers.
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Mark Surman has written about an interesting new business model: Noank. You have to read his post to understand this one.
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The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Science and Technology, (National Assembly), will receive a briefing by the Department of Science and Technology on the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research Bill (IPR Bill)], Venue to be confirmed, 10:00, Tuesday 3 June, 2008.
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Every year the Constitution of South Africa requires that the provisions of the constitution should be reviewed. A parliamentary committee reviews the provisions of the constitution. This year an invitation for public submissions (details below) has been sent out, submissions due by the end of May.
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What we do in this area:
“Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) were originally instituted to encourage the creation and invention of public goods for the benefit of society by allowing creators and inventors to protect their intellectual property. However, IPR has become overly restrictive in recent times as corporate interests have led to an ever increasing demand for lock-down on rights.
The Shuttleworth Foundation supports initiatives that call for the establishment of national and global IPR regimes that seek an appropriate balance between encouraging innovation and benefiting society, the original purpose of creating the rights. “
The most populous countries in the world have rejected the OOXML as an international standard but its been pushed through anyway. China, India, Brazil and South Africa have all firmly rejected OOXML as an international standard, in a re-visit of the voting process which took place during September 2007.
Although ISO has yet to officially release the result, early reports suggest that extensive lobbying has engineered a vote change in a sufficiently large number of countries so that the specification will be pushed through.
What we do in this area:
“Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) were originally instituted to encourage the creation and invention of public goods for the benefit of society by allowing creators and inventors to protect their intellectual property. However, IPR has become overly restrictive in recent times as corporate interests have led to an ever increasing demand for lock-down on rights.
