16 novembre 2009
1
16
/11
/novembre
/2009
20:20
Over the next few years key political decisions will be taken in the EU, the US and within international institutions that will attempt to redefine the global governance of access to knowledge, establishing a new balance between universal public interest and property rights in many fields of innovation and creation.
At present a broad and heated debate is developing within European Institutions concerning intellectual property, the access to knowledge and the democratic management of digital ecosystems. The access to knowledge issues being discussed are quite transversal in nature, crosssing many policy areas from scientific research to industrial innovation, from market competition to international trade, from the defence of fundamental rights to the push for development in the South, from the quest for harmonised legal systems to the move for the access to universal public health. As clear and contrasting policy options are being revealed these issues are meriting growing public awareness among European citizens.
These discussions are taking place in the midst of an intense offensive on the part of large industrial interests and content owners who would like to intensify and strengthen European and international measures against IP violations. Today much of the visible direct political pressure being placed upon EU institutions is in favour of much tougher IP regimes. The strengthening of criminal measures on a European and international level, the negotiation of trade agreements with extremely strict IP clauses, the negotiation of an international IP agreement disguised as a trade accord, ACTA, with a very broad scope and profound impact, as well as the attempt to end the net neutrality of current Internet governance, are all part of the current campaign of content owners, some incumbent firms and a number of Northern countries. At the same time, with much less presence in these debates are the voices of civil society, the governments of developing countries , consumer organisations and the interests of other innovative private businesses that all tend to support, in varying degrees and forms, more flexible legal frameworks for intellectual property regulation that provide more guarantees for innovation, social justice, public health and human rights concerns.
At present a broad and heated debate is developing within European Institutions concerning intellectual property, the access to knowledge and the democratic management of digital ecosystems. The access to knowledge issues being discussed are quite transversal in nature, crosssing many policy areas from scientific research to industrial innovation, from market competition to international trade, from the defence of fundamental rights to the push for development in the South, from the quest for harmonised legal systems to the move for the access to universal public health. As clear and contrasting policy options are being revealed these issues are meriting growing public awareness among European citizens.
These discussions are taking place in the midst of an intense offensive on the part of large industrial interests and content owners who would like to intensify and strengthen European and international measures against IP violations. Today much of the visible direct political pressure being placed upon EU institutions is in favour of much tougher IP regimes. The strengthening of criminal measures on a European and international level, the negotiation of trade agreements with extremely strict IP clauses, the negotiation of an international IP agreement disguised as a trade accord, ACTA, with a very broad scope and profound impact, as well as the attempt to end the net neutrality of current Internet governance, are all part of the current campaign of content owners, some incumbent firms and a number of Northern countries. At the same time, with much less presence in these debates are the voices of civil society, the governments of developing countries , consumer organisations and the interests of other innovative private businesses that all tend to support, in varying degrees and forms, more flexible legal frameworks for intellectual property regulation that provide more guarantees for innovation, social justice, public health and human rights concerns.
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