The last bit of this message is the aspect of copyright based freedom which concerns me.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Andrew Rens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Oct 26, 2007 12:00 AM Subject: [A2k] Development Agenda Regional Seminars: Cape Town To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ] WIPO/DTI Cape Town Seminar 22-26 October 2007 The World Intellectual Property Organisation, and the South African Department of Trade and Industry are holding a seminar entitled "WIPO International Seminar on the Strategic Use of Intellectual Property for Economic and Social Development" in Cape Town. The seminar started on 22 October and ends tomorrow 26 October. The express purpose of the seminar is to discuss the Development Agenda, to encourage regional co-ordination of development initiaves on intellectual property issues. Most of the participants are country representatives, veterans of Geneva, many from Africa, with a few from other regions (Ecuador and Russia). Many of the South African participants represent the usual array of interest groups, routinely advocating maximalist protection. Strangely, the discourse has been dominated by protectionist language. The idea that development for African countries is primarily addressing a lack of capacity to imitate policies initiated in the developed world has been thoroughly internalised. There are some voices calling for economic research, so that intellectual property regimes may be evidence based. As a whole however development appears to be associated with process, capacity building, and networks without a substantial agenda for those processes, capacity and network to pursue. The only non-process issue which have been subject to any kind of indepth discussion are suggestions that traditional knowledge and geographical indicators be used by developing countries to secure knowledge for exploitation in a mirror image of the multi-national corporations. Limitations and Exceptions have received very little attention, until the discussion of digital copyright on Thursday morning. However, except for the presentations by Prof Coen Visser and Esme Du Plessis limitations and exceptions are still characterised as marginal, rather than central to the innovative and creative processes which Intellectual Property (ostensibly) exists to enable. There seems to be some danger of a collective failure of imagination, failure to imagine how the existing rules might be re-written, failure to imagine alternative incentive schemes, and failure to imagine a different world. Andrew Rens Now blogging at www.aliquidnovi.org _______________________________________________ A2k mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss
