Learn, hack!

URL

http://dewy.fem.tu-ilmenau.de/CCC/22C3/audio/mp3/22C3-499-en-access_to_knowledge.mp3

File name

22C3-499-en-access_to_knowledge.mp3

File size

22.4 MB

MD5

edf0d3726f3346b6257094036cc3a814

SHA1

768f54682a3bc06aa69427b67ad941b25fdeda02

Your Access to Knowledge is at stake. At the World Intellectual Property Organisation, where international treaties on copyright and patents are decided on, a revolution is taking place. Big rightsholders have been getting their way until now, restricting the free use of ideas. A Treaty on Access to Knowledge is needed to guarantee your rights, and the Free Software Foundation Europe is working on it. Ever get the feeling that your country's copyright regime is getting more restrictive? This may well be due to a UN agency you have probably not heard of: The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva. Here, international treaties on copyright, patents and trademarks are drafted and decided on. Until now, this has usually happened in the interest of big rightsholders (read: the pharma, music and film businesses). These treaties are increasingly restricting your Access to Knowledge, and they are hurting developing countries. But now, in a move that can be called dramatic by UN standards, those countries are making their voices heard. The Group of Friends of Development, led by Brasil, Argentina and India, are demanding a reorientation of WIPO's work. Instead of ever stricter enforcement of copyright and patent treaties, they are calling for more emphasis on flexibilities.