Access to Knowledge movement

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The Access to Knowledge (A2K) movement is a loose collection of civil society groups, governments, and individuals converging on the idea that access to knowledge should be linked to fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development.

Contents

History

The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities from 2003 is a major declaration reflecting the goals of the movement pertaining to academic publishing.

In October 2004, the Geneva declaration on the future of the World Intellectual Property Organization emerged from a call from Brazil and Argentina for a development agenda for the World Intellectual Property Organization, and was supported by hundreds organizations. [1] Supporters included the Free Software Foundation, with a statement Towards a "World Intellectual Wealth Organisation": Supporting the Geneva Declaration. [2]

One of the proposals of the declaration was to a "call for a Treaty on Access to Knowledge and Technology. The Standing Committee on Patents and the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights should solicit views from member countries and the public on elements of such a treaty". [3]

A shared discussion platform on A2K issues is the mailing list of that name, which was initiated around discussion of the Geneva declaration. [4] A draft "A2K treaty" was later produced. [5] The proposed treaty is intended to ease the transfer of knowledge to developing nations, and to secure the viability of open innovation systems all over the world. [6]

Human rights debate

Access to knowledge and science is protected by Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The article balances the right of access with a right to protection of moral and material interests:

Article 27

Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

A2K academics argue that "material interests" are not simply equivalent to current intellectual property provisions, not least because these rights are saleable and transferable, and therefore not "inalienable". The right to access is ultimately the more important part of the right. Current levels of IP protection seem out of balance with Article 27, according to A2K theorists:

... in a very real sense, rights delayed are rights denied. Had access to oral rehydration therapy and second-generation vaccine technologies been delayed for twenty years ... three million children would have died. Even for less life-and-death technologies, a twenty-year delay works an immense limitation on enjoyment of the right. For cultural works, the situation is even worse; protection lasts longer than a human lifetime. [7]

Supporters

Knowledge Ecology International

CP Tech (now Knowledge Ecology International) say: "the A2K (Access to Knowledge) movement takes concerns with copyright law and other regulations that affect knowledge and places them within an understandable social need and policy platform: access to knowledge goods." [8]

Consumers International

Many different groups refer to the A2K movement. Consumers International is particularly prominent, running a dedicated domain, [9] and defines the movement as:

the umbrella term for a movement that aims to create more equitable public access to the products of human culture and learning. The ultimate objective of the movement is to create a world in which educational and cultural works are accessible to all, and in which consumers and creators alike participate in a vibrant ecosystem of innovation and creativity.

These goals are of interest to a broad coalition of consumer groups, NGOs, activists, Internet users and others. For many of them, coming to grips with the issues involved in the A2K movement can be daunting. These issues, including copyright and patent law reform, open content licensing, and communications rights, often involve legal and technological concepts that even specialists find difficult.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">WIPO Copyright Treaty</span>

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Industrial property is one of two subsets of intellectual property, it takes a range of forms, including patents for inventions, industrial designs, trademarks, service marks, layout-designs of integrated circuits, commercial names and designations, geographical indications and protection against unfair competition. In some cases, aspects of an intellectual creation, although present, are less clearly defined. The object of industrial property consists of signs conveying information, in particular to consumers, regarding products and services offered on the market. Protection is directed against unauthorized use of such signs that could mislead consumers, and against misleading practices in general.

World Intellectual Property Day is observed annually on April 26. The event was established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2000 to "raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and designs impact on daily life" and "to celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of economies and societies across the globe". April 26 was chosen as the date for World Intellectual Property Day because it coincides with the date on which the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization entered into force in 1970. World Intellectual Property Day is WIPO’s largest intellectual property (IP) public outreach campaign.

The Adelphi Charter on Creativity, Innovation and Intellectual Property is the result of a project commissioned by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, London, England, and is intended as a positive statement of what good intellectual property policy is. The Charter was issued in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Love (NGO director)</span>

James Packard Love is the director of Knowledge Ecology International, formerly known as the Consumer Project on Technology, a non-governmental organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and Geneva, that works mainly on matters concerning knowledge management and governance, including intellectual property policy and practice and innovation policy, particularly as they relate to health care and access to knowledge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Information Society Project</span>

The Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School is an intellectual center studying the implications of the Internet and new information technologies for law and society. The ISP was founded in 1997 by Jack Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School. Jack Balkin is the director of the ISP.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to intellectual property:

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The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, was an international assembly held in 1886 in the Swiss city of Bern by ten European countries with the goal to agree on a set of legal principles for the protection of original work. They drafted and adopted a multi-party contract containing agreements for a uniform, crossing border system that became known under the same name. Its rules have been updated many times since then. The treaty provides authors, musicians, poets, painters, and other creators with the means to control how their works are used, by whom, and on what terms. In some jurisdictions these type of rights are being referred to as copyright.

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Limitations and exceptions to copyright are provisions, in local copyright law or the Berne Convention, which allow for copyrighted works to be used without a license from the copyright owner.

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The right to science and culture is one of the economic, social and cultural rights claimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related documents of international human rights law. It recognizes that everyone has a right to freely participate in culture, to freely share in science and technology, and to protection of authorship.

Copyright for Creativity - A Declaration for Europe issued on 5 May 2010, is intended as a statement of how copyright policy could be constructed in the Internet Age. It comes against the background of political debate within Europe to rethink copyright in an era where the use of digital content without paying fees to the creators is part of the business model for some of the largest global internet platforms. Interests of content creators and online platform providers collide. The declaration has been written by a group from political party "European People's Party (EPP)" The Declaration focuses on both the exclusive rights and the limitations and exceptions to existing copyright rulings and standards.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">WIPO Lex</span>

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Republic Act No. 8293, otherwise known as The Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines lays down the rules and regulations that grant, and enforce patents in the Philippines. Patents may be granted to technical solutions such as an inventions, machines, devices, processes, or an improvement of any of the foregoing. The technical solution must be novel, innovative, and industrially useful. In order for a technical solution to be granted a patent, the inventor must file an application to the Bureau of Patents, which will examine, and in some cases, grant its approval. The law is designed as to foster domestic creativity, to attract foreign investors, and to motivate inventors to release their products for public access.

References

  1. ↑ "Geneva Declaration on the Future of WIPO".
  2. ↑ "FSFE - Towards a "World Intellectual Wealth Organisation"".
  3. ↑ "Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization".
  4. ↑ "A2k Info Page". lists.keionline.org. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
  5. ↑ "Treaty on Access to Knowledge" (PDF). Cptech.org. Retrieved 2013-09-02.
  6. ↑ "Experts Debate Access To Knowledge | Intellectual Property Watch". Ip-watch.org. 2005-02-15. Retrieved 2013-09-02.
  7. ↑ Shaver, Lea (2010). "The Right to Science and Culture". Wisconsin Law Review. 1: 121–184. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1354788. SSRN   1354788.
  8. ↑ "Access to Knowledge". Cptech.org. Retrieved 2013-09-02.
  9. ↑ "A global advocacy network for consumers in the digital age". A2Knetwork.org. Archived from the original on 2013-10-30. Retrieved 2013-09-02.

Further reading

Global

Local

  1. ↑ Ronaldo Lemos; Pedro Nicoletti Mizukami; Ronaldo Lemos; Bruno Magrani; Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza (2010), Access to Knowledge in Brazil, Bloomsbury Academic, OL   25370105M
  2. ↑ Lea Shaver; Nagla Rizk (2010), Access to Knowledge in Egypt, Bloomsbury Academic, ISBN   978-1-84966-008-2, OL   25370145M, 1849660085
  3. ↑ Lea Shaver; Ramesh Subramanian (2011), Access to Knowledge in India, Bloomsbury Academic, ISBN   978-1849665261, OL   25370143M, 1849665265
  4. ↑ Armstrong, Chris Dr (2010), Access to Knowledge in Africa, UCT Press, OL   25370223M
  5. ↑ Gaelle Krikorian; Amy Kapczynski (2010), Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property, MIT Press, OL   25370177M
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