Increasing consumers voice in Intellectual Property policy
As an Australian consumer, I’m not able to copy a DVD I own and watch it on my laptop. It’s not that I can’t do it, or even that I’m not allowed to do so, but under Australian law, it’s illegal to overcome the anti-copying software included on my DVDs.
This was just one of the issues highlighted at today’s side event, Increasing Consumers Voice in Intellectual Property (IP) policy. IP has traditionally focussed on copyright, patents and trademarks. But as Michelle Childs, head of European Affairs at Knowledge Economy International points out, rights are supposed to have a balance that give exceptions and limitations to users – and consumers don’t usually have rights in this area at all.
And in an IP climate where the new battleground is enforcement, the rights issue has fundamental worldwide implications for consumers. How can we ensure access to educational material when technically, in Africa, a teacher can be sent to prison for five years for copying more than three pages of a textbook?
Delegates also discussed how IP policy has implications for the access to affordable medicine in developing countries. Dr Jiraporn Limpananont talked about several cases in Thailand, where pharmaceutical patents have led to a market, rather than needs-driven approach. There, the patent of the formulation of HIV drug ddl – a well-established medicine which was invented by the NIH in the US – led to prices that most patients simply could not afford. The Civil Society Movement in Thailand fought the patent in the courts, which eventually led to the voluntary withdrawal of the patent.
Great discussion throughout the morning but here are a few quotes that I found particularly pertinent. Please feel free to add your own in the comments.
[DRM] is bad business because it alienates the best customers of IP – young people. It’s bad law because it criminalises our own sons and daughters.
More and more we’re receiving our information in a digital form and it’s governed very often by rules that are not fair at all. Even school textbooks are in digital form – can you pass them on to siblings? Very often, you can’t.
The [DRM] debate becomes stupid because the director of Apple says you can rip a CD to overcome the DRM, but won’t change the licence, which includes criminal sanctions.
IP rights are rights. They shouldn’t be tradeable. Would you trade your right to free speech?
