From jeebesh at sarai.net Wed Nov 4 11:44:21 2009 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 11:44:21 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Fwd: [Commons-convergence] Fwd: [Debate] (Fwd) 'Commons' References: <4AF117C2.8010709@gmail.com> Message-ID: <3EFA7FD6-7AB8-4C28-A918-276844B1D906@sarai.net> Could be useful...... Begin forwarded message: > From: Leo Saldanha > Date: 4 November 2009 11:27:22 AM GMT+05:30 > To: Jai Sen > Cc: Post Commons Convergence > Subject: Re: [Commons-convergence] Fwd: [Debate] (Fwd) 'Commons' > Reply-To: leofsaldanha at gmail.com > > Thanks Jai for sharing a very interesting article and also a link to > an very resourceful site on the commons. > > ESG has been involved in major litigations over the past few years > to secure the commons, especially in the urbs. Interestingly, > Courts have agreed with our positions and secured urban commons - > such as lakes - from potential acquistion for private profit. > Recently, as a result of our ongoing litigations, Karnataka State > cancelled an agreement to privatise one lake, and we think this is > precedent to cancel all other agreements. > Thsoe interested can access our PILs and some interim orders by > visiting our website: www.esgindia.org (look for PILs on Lake > Privtisation and Road widening). The road widening case is > interesting because most of us assume the Government has an absolute > right to renegotiate its form and structure. We contended this > argument, and have succeeded in winning the Court's support to > subject such decision to the due process of public consultation as > laid down in the law. > > Somewhat disappointing is the lack of interest amongst many > activists and academia in these litigation initiatives, particularly > in exploring its possible implications to securing the commons. I > hope with renewed interest in the topic, thanks to the Nobel prize > given to Ostrum, interest may pick up on such issues amongst > activist and academic communities. > > The future as I see it, in light of the worst predictions of climate > change, will be all about how successful we are in securing the > public access quality of our commons... be they local parks, > streets, beaches, atmosphere, forests, cyberspace, etc.... > > Leo > > Jai Sen wrote: >> >> Begin forwarded message: >> >>> *From: *Patrick Bond > >>> *Date: *November 4 2009 9:47:03 am GMT+05:30 >>> *To: *DEBATE >> list at fahamu.org>> >>> *Subject: **[Debate] (Fwd) 'Commons'* >>> *Reply-To: *pbond at mail.ngo.za , Debate >>> is a listserve that attempts to promote information and analyses >>> of interest to the independent left in South and Southern Africa >> > >>> >>> The Commons: From Tragedy to Celebrity >>> >>> United for a Fair Economy >>> October 2009 >>> http://enews.faireconomy.org/2009/October2009.html >>> >>> The recipients of the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics were >>> announced on Monday October 12th. The prize was shared >>> between two Americans, Elinor Ostrum and Oliver E. >>> Williamson. >>> >>> Ostrum deserves a special toast for several reasons. >>> First, such high-level recognition of her work brings >>> the idea of The Commons into the spotlight, which is >>> fitting given how broken our current economic system is. >>> Second, she is only the second non-economist to win the >>> award and, as the first female recipient of the award, >>> she shattered yet another glass ceiling for women the >>> world over. >>> >>> Ostrom's research, which essentially bridges political >>> science and economics, focuses on community vs. private >>> or governmental management of common resources like >>> land, forests, irrigation waters and fisheries. One of >>> her key findings is that successful governance can >>> result when end-users - the people actually using the >>> resources - actively participate in the process. >>> >>> This directly contradicts the long-standing theory of >>> the "Tragedy of the Commons," in which property rights >>> and privatization are seen to be the only means to >>> preserving finite resources. >>> >>> The commons doesn't just refer to natural resources, >>> however. It includes anything that is shared by members >>> of local, national or even global communities. And it >>> raises the idea that we can shift from a market-based >>> society narrowly focused on private wealth, to a >>> commons-based society focused on managing common assets >>> so they benefit everyone. Essentially, it offers a >>> framework for revamping our currently flawed economic >>> system, and seeks to do so to benefit the many - an idea >>> that is right up our ally. >>> >>> About the Commons >>> http://onthecommons.org/content.php?id=1467 >>> >>> The commons is a new way to express a very old idea-that >>> some forms of wealth belong to all of us, and that these >>> community resources must be actively protected and >>> managed for the good and all. >>> >>> The commons are the things that we inherit and create >>> jointly, and that will (hopefully) last for generations >>> to come. The commons consists of gifts of nature such as >>> air, oceans and wildlife as well as shared social >>> creations such as libraries, public spaces, scientific >>> research and creative works. >>> >>> Biopiracy: The practice where traditional knowledge of >>> natural resources, especially medicinal and agricultural >>> plants, is appropriated by international companies to >>> create products, for which they are awarded exclusive >>> rights to use under patent laws. >>> >>> Cap-and-dividend: A practical solution to the problem of >>> global climate disruption, based upon the commons >>> principle that the atmosphere belongs to everyone. (Also >>> known as the Sky Trust.) First articulated by On the >>> Commons co-founder Peter Barnes in his 2002 book, Who >>> Owns the Sky? cap-and-dividend is a response to cap-and- >>> trade proposals in which polluters are granted >>> permission to buy and sell pollution rights as a way to >>> curb carbon and other emissions causing global warming. >>> This essentially gives existing polluters ownership of >>> the air in order to create incentives to reduce >>> emissions. Cap-and-dividend starts at the same place by >>> creating a cap on pollution that gradually reduces the >>> amount of greenhouse gases that can be dumped into the >>> air and creating a market where the right to pollute can >>> be bought and sold. But rather than letting historical >>> polluters reap all the financial benefits, fees that >>> companies pay to pollute would be collected and returned >>> to citizens in the form of a regular dividend. This is >>> not only a more equitable way to distribute the wealth >>> created by a commons, it also increases public support >>> for measures to stop global climate change. For more >>> information see Peter Barnes 2008 book Climate Solutions >>> >>> Common assets: Common assets are those parts of the >>> commons that have a value in the market and which are >>> appropriate to buy and sell (see "inalienability"). >>> Radio airwaves are a common asset, for example, as are >>> timber and minerals on public lands and, increasingly, >>> air and water. By recognizing certain resources as >>> common assets, it becomes natural to ask: Are the common >>> assets being responsibly managed on behalf of the >>> general public or a distinct community of interest? Is >>> the capital being depleted? >>> >>> Commons movement: A growing social and political >>> movement that believes the commons is a crucial sector >>> of the economy and society and useful prism for talking >>> about resources that should be shared. The commons >>> offers not only an affirmative vision of a more >>> equitable, eco-friendly society: it also serves as a >>> countervailing force to keep excesses of the market and >>> government sectors in check. Some speak of an emerging >>> commons paradigm as a new way of looking at the world, >>> one that opens up the competitive, mechanistic, profit- >>> centric mindset that has ruled Western civilization >>> since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, with a more >>> humanistic, environmentally aware and holistic world >>> view. A wider appreciation for the enduring importance >>> of the commons has developed over the last eight years, >>> especially among people deeply involved in the politics >>> of water issues, the internet, the over >>> commercialization of culture and public spaces. This >>> world view is now reaching into many other arenas, >>> including economics, the environment, social justice and >>> numerous citizens movements around the world. >>> >>> Copyleft: This refers to a license that allows free re- >>> use and modification of creative work so long as any >>> works derived from the original remain available on the >>> same terms. Copyleft, formally known as the "General >>> Public License" or GPL, was initiated by computer >>> programmer Richard Stallman and the Free Software >>> Foundation. By protecting the creativity and energy of >>> the commons from private appropriation, the GPL has >>> enabled communities of programmers to build shared >>> bodies of code, such as free software and open source >>> software. A similar set of licenses for other types of >>> creative works has been devised by the Creative Commons. >>> >>> Corporation: A self-perpetuating legal entity whose >>> mission is to maximize short-term return to >>> shareholders. In its aggressive pursuit of this mission, >>> the corporation not only produces new innovations and >>> efficiencies, it also displaces costs onto the >>> environment, our communities and our personal lives (see >>> externality). >>> >>> Enclosure: Historically, this refers to the >>> privatization of common grazing lands beginning in 15th >>> Century England, which impoverished many peasants. Today >>> it is used to describe the conversion of a commons into >>> private property. Enclosure entails not just the >>> privatization of a resource, but also the introduction >>> of money and market exchange as the prevailing >>> principles for managing that resource. Enclosure shifts >>> ownership and control from the community at large to >>> private companies. This in turn changes the management >>> and character of the resource because the market has >>> very different standards of accountability and >>> transparency than a commons. (Contrast a public library >>> with a bookstore, or Main Street with a private shopping >>> mall.) Because of its compulsion to extract maximum >>> short-term rents and externalize costs, market enclosure >>> often results in the "tragedy of the market." >>> >>> Externality or illth: A social or ecological cost that >>> is not paid by its creators. As the scope of market >>> activity expands beyond a certain point, engulfing more >>> of nature and daily life, it yields less and less >>> happiness and wellbeing even as it causes more and more >>> unintended problems. In market logic, the expanding >>> output must be regarded as "progress" and "wealth." In >>> fact, the accelerating pace of the market machine is >>> producing more "illth" - the opposite of wealth. Author >>> Peter Barnes ( Who Owns the Sky ) has popularized this >>> term, coined by John Ruskin in the 19th century, to >>> describe the unintended but increasing destruction of >>> nature, social disruptions, health problems and other >>> (unacknowledged, unintended or disguised) costs of >>> market activity. >>> >>> Gift economy: A community of shared purpose, such as an >>> academic discipline, whose members give time and >>> creativity to the community and reap benefits in return. >>> In gift communities, money is an unacceptable "currency" >>> because relationships are rooted in personal, particular >>> and historical experiences of each individual, and >>> cannot be converted into cash or any other fungible >>> unit. Despite the absence of cash, legal contracts and >>> market exchange, a gift economy can be tremendously >>> productive, efficient and innovative, as seen in free >>> and open software communities, online wikis and other >>> collaborative websites, blood donation systems and >>> scientific research disciplines. >>> >>> Inalienability: The principle that a given resource >>> shall not be freely bought and sold in the marketplace, >>> but shall remain intact, in its natural context. >>> Inalienability derives from a social consensus that >>> certain things and behaviors are so precious and basic >>> to human identity that they are degraded if they are put >>> up for sale. "Goods" that have traditionally been >>> regarded as inalienable include votes, babies, bodily >>> organs, sex, genes, living species and most aspects of >>> nature, but market forces are increasingly challenging >>> long-standing norms of inalienability. >>> >>> Land trusts: An alternative model of land ownership in >>> which a tract of land is owned by a non-profit >>> organization-usually to preserve its natural assets or >>> to maintain it as affordable housing. There are more >>> than 1,600 land trusts in the US today encompassing 37 >>> million acres. Land trusts provide a good example of how >>> a commons economic model can exist outside the realm of >>> both government and private control as a distinct sector >>> for advancing the public good. Professor Carol Rose of >>> Yale Law School has cited land trusts as an example of >>> "property on the outside, commons on the inside"-meaning >>> that the resource exists within the market system as >>> legal property yet is managed internally according to >>> commons principles. >>> >>> Open source software: (See copyleft) Open source >>> software is functionally similar to free software that >>> is protected under the General Public License, or GPL, >>> except that open source programs allow a program to be >>> freely copied, modified and distributed, but do not >>> require it. In addition, the open source community does >>> not necessarily subscribe to the political agenda of >>> Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software >>> Foundation, who regards the GPL as the foundation for a >>> vision of political and creative freedom. Open source >>> programmers tend to be more focused on the practical >>> value of open source code in developing superior >>> software. >>> >>> Public goods: Resources that, because of their "public" >>> nature, are difficult or costly to exclude anyone from >>> using. Examples include lighthouses, city parks, >>> broadcast programming and the global atmosphere. In the >>> lingo of economists, these are "non-rival" and "non- >>> excludable" resources. Government often steps in to pay >>> for public goods because it is difficult to get >>> individual beneficiaries to pay for them. But in the >>> networked environment of the Internet, it is >>> increasingly feasible for self-organizing groups to >>> create and pay for public goods. Open source software is >>> a prime example. >>> >>> Public space: Any place where people are free to gather >>> for social or civic interaction. The value of public >>> spaces is increasingly being recognized as essential to >>> the health of local communities and democratic societies >>> in general. While usually defined as parks, streets and >>> sidewalks, plazas, libraries and public institutions, >>> the concept can also be expanded to include congenial >>> privately owned settings such as a coffee shop, corner >>> grocery or a plaza outside an office building. Shopping >>> malls, which in many suburban communities function as >>> Main Street, have stirred controversy by forbidding >>> civic activities such as gathering signatures for >>> petitions-a policy upheld by the courts which worries >>> many civil liberties and public space advocates. >>> >>> Public trust doctrine: A legal doctrine that says that >>> the state holds certain resources in trust for its >>> citizens which cannot be given away or sold. Public >>> trust doctrine has its origins in Roman law, which >>> recognized that certain resources such as fisheries, >>> air, running water and wild animals belong to all. Under >>> the doctrine of res communes , the king could not grant >>> exclusive rights of access to a common resource. The >>> point is that there is a clear distinction between >>> common property (which belongs to the people) and state >>> property (which can be controlled and mismanaged by >>> government). >>> >>> Sky Trust (See Cap-and-Dividend) >>> >>> Tragedy of the commons: Title of an influential 1968 >>> essay by biologist Garrett Hardin, which argued that >>> overuse of common resources is a leading cause of >>> environmental degradation. This was interpreted by some, >>> especially economists and free-market libertarians, to >>> mean that private ownership is preferable to the commons >>> for the stewardship of land, water, minerals, etc. Yet >>> in recent years many have challenged this view on both >>> empirical and philosophical grounds. Professor Elinor >>> Ostrom of Indiana University has been a leading figure >>> in demonstrating the practical utility and >>> sustainability of commons governance regimes, >>> particularly in developing countries. Other analysts, >>> such as Professor Yochai Benkler of Harvard Law School, >>> have shown how people in online commons can indeed >>> collaborate sustainably to produce and protect valuable >>> resources. This suggests that the vision of human >>> behavior implicit in the tragedy of the commons metaphor >>> is not as immutable as many economists assert, and that >>> collective management is an eminently practical >>> governance strategy in many circumstances. The tragedy >>> of the "anti-commons" is now frequently invoked to >>> describe the problems associated with excessive >>> privatization and fragmentation of property rights, such >>> that collective action for the common good is thwarted. >>> An example is the proliferation of patents on bio- >>> medical knowledge that impedes research on cures for >>> malaria, or the proliferation of copyrights in film and >>> video that prevents documentary filmmakers from clearing >>> the rights to images for use in new films. >>> >>> Trust or stakeholder trust: A legal institution for >>> protecting the commons and managing any assets that may >>> arise from it. If the corporation is the preeminent >>> institution of the market, the trust is the premier >>> institution of the commons. The managers of a trust, the >>> trustees, have clear legal responsibilities to manage >>> its resources on behalf of the beneficiaries. This >>> includes strict fiduciary responsibilities, transparency >>> and accountability. (See land trusts) >>> >>> Value: Economists tend to regard "value" as a >>> quantifiable object with a price tag. But as commoners >>> realize, "value" can also be something intangible and >>> not available for sale. An example is the social >>> satisfaction of belonging to a community and >>> contributing to a shared goal. A commons can also create >>> economic value as efficiently as a market; examples >>> include Wikipedia, the online user-generated >>> encyclopedia, and Craiglist, the online advertising >>> service. The difference is that a commons usually does >>> not convert its output into a marketable commodity. >>> >>> _____________________________________________ >>> >>> Portside aims to provide material of interest >>> to people on the left that will help them to >>> interpret the world and to change it. >>> >>> Submit via email: moderator at portside.org >>> Submit via the Web: portside.org/submit >>> Frequently asked questions: portside.org/faq >>> Subscribe: portside.org/subscribe >>> Unsubscribe: portside.org/unsubscribe >>> Account assistance: portside.org/contact >>> Search the archives: portside.org/archive >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Debate-list mailing list >>> Debate-list at fahamu.org >>> http://lists.fahamu.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debate-list >> >> ______________________________ >> Jai Sen >> jai.sen at cacim.net >> CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India >> www.cacim.net >> Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, +91-98189 11325 >> *DELETION OF OLD EMAIL IDs : *Please note that I am no longer using >> my earlier email ids, jai.sen at vsnl.com >> and jai_sen2000 at yahoo.com . *PLEASE >> KINDLY DELETE THESE FROM YOUR RECORDS ! Thanks.* >> *NEW :* >> ‘On open space : Explorations towards a vocabulary of a more open >> politics’, @ http://cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php? >> page=Publications (May 20 2009) >> *Check out* both *CACIM* @ www.cacim.net and >> *OpenSpaceForum* @ www.openspaceforum.net > > >> *Subscribe to* WSFDiscuss, an open and unmoderated forum on the >> World Social Forum and on related social and political movements >> and issues. Simply send an empty email to worldsocialforum-discuss-subscribe at openspaceforum.net >> >> >> P *Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail* >> >> *Note :* In case you are having problems opening any Word >> attachments I have sent you, you could try one of the following : >> (a) Put your cursor on the icon, do a right click, see ‘Open With’, >> and open with Word…; or (b), try saving the document onto your >> desktop or hard disc, and then opening it. With apologies in >> advance if this advice seems to question your technological literacy… >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Commons-convergence mailing list >> Commons-convergence at lists.kandalaya.org >> http://lists.kandalaya.org/listinfo/commons-convergence >> > > _______________________________________________ > Commons-convergence mailing list > Commons-convergence at lists.kandalaya.org > http://lists.kandalaya.org/listinfo/commons-convergence -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20091104/1f91c84a/attachment-0002.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: leofsaldanha.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 310 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20091104/1f91c84a/attachment-0001.vcf -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20091104/1f91c84a/attachment-0003.html From pranesh at cis-india.org Wed Nov 4 21:15:57 2009 From: pranesh at cis-india.org (Pranesh Prakash) Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:15:57 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Review of Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars by Nate Anderson Message-ID: <4AF1A1B5.8020803@cis-india.org> Dear all, Here's a review of William Patry's new book *Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars* (for which he runs a blog: ) from Nate Anderson of Ars Technica. There has been quite a few reviews of the book, both positive and negative. Indeed, Patry's latest blog entry is about reviews of his book, and what his book seeks and does doesn't seek to do. As a sidenote, on his blog Patry hosted a very long and interesting dialogue with Ben Sheffner, an entertainment-IP lawyer: http://moralpanicsandthecopyrightwars.blogspot.com/search/label/Ben%20Sheffner http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/11/big-content-using-moral-panics-to-change-copyright-law.ars Big Content: Using "moral panics" to change copyright law One of the top copyright lawyers in the US takes Big Content to the woodshed in his new book, saying that "the Copyright Wars are a fight against our own children and it is a fight that says everything about the adults and very little about the children." By Nate Anderson | Last updated November 3, 2009 11:31 PM CT William Patry might not look from the outside like a man with a fire in his belly. A copyright lawyer for 27 years, Patry has written one of two definitive accounts of US copyright law (all 5,500 pages of [*Patry on Copyright*][1] can be yours for the low, low price of only $1,589). He served as a key counsel to the House of Representatives and is currently Senior Copyright Counsel at Internet behemoth Google—and if you ascribe his personal views to his employer, Patry will visit your house in the night and throw copies of *Patry on Copyright* through your largest windows. Trust me. [1]: http://west.thomson.com/productdetail/139343/40449295/productdetail.aspx In short, he's an established and highly successful lawyer whose bio hardly makes him sound like a bomb-thrower. But, when freed from the shackles of legal writing, Patry can lob hand grenades with the best of them. Consider these choice nuggets from his new book, *Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars*, which veers repeatedly into "screed" territory: * "The Copyright Wars and the recent grotesque expansion of rights and remedies should be regarded as a legal equivalent of the subprime mortgage crisis: cancers on our system that were foreseeable and preventable but for greed, a failed ideology that the unregulated private pursuit of profit is also in the best interest of the public, and worldwide lack of political courage to admit to and take responsibility for the damage caused by copyright laws that harm rather than serve the public." * "The term graduated response should be replaced with a more accurate term 'digital guillotine,' reflecting its killing of a critical way people connect with the world and in some cases, eliminating their ability to make a living. If proportionality is a hallmark of civilization, the digital guillotine is the hallmark of barbarians... The French Revolution shows that when we are in the throes of a moral panic, harsh, disproportionate measures can be made to appear essential." * "Corporate copyright owners live in fear, especially fear of their own consumers. Those consumers are young, tech savvy, and have wrested control over corporations' physical product from them, an unthinkable act 10 years ago. The result is a classical moral panic against youth... The Copyright Wars are a fight against our own children and it is a fight that says everything about the adults and very little about the children." * "The DMCA is the 21st-century equivalent of letting copyright owners put a chastity belt on someone else's wife." * "I cannot think of a single significant innovation in neither the creation or distribution of works of authorship that owes its origins to the copyright industries." Not that there's anything wrong with a good screed; in the right hands, the screed can be a hugely enjoyable form. But there's a certain irony about the method here. The quotes above rely on the most vivid of metaphors—copyright battles as cancer, graduated response laws as guillotines, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as a chastity belt—in order to discredit what they describe, yet this is exactly what Patry spends much of the book accusing Big Content of doing. ### Powerful metaphors You have to love a book on copyright that quotes Gadamer, I.A. Richards, and George Lakoff in its first fifty pages, and one that spends a chapter on the theory of metaphor. Patry wants to show that copyright owners use metaphors—especially that of the "pirate" and the "thief"—in order to short-circuit critical thinking on copyright issues. "It doesn't matter whether people know what pirates were actually like in the Golden Age of Piracy in the 17th and 18th centuries; rather, it is enough that the term evokes powerful negative associations which are then transferred to the desired folk devils, for example, the manufacturer of VCRs, file-sharers, or Internet service providers. In the transference, our attitudes are changed." Whenever copyright holders have felt threatened over the past century, they tend to stir up "moral panics" usually directed at the young. One of the best at this was Hollywood's top lobbyist in Washington for many years, Jack Valenti. Patry calls Valenti "the best lobbyist I ever knew," and says that he "always felt happy to be in his presence, even though he was lobbying on behalf of clients who did not always deserve what he sought." When Valenti got worked up, he could play on people's fears like no one else—even when the issue was a business dispute over copyright law, Valenti could turn it into a morality play. Most famous was his comment to Congress in the 1970s that the VCR was to Hollywood like "the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone." But Valenti survived even into the peer-to-peer era, and he also testified to Congress in support of the DMCA. The goal was to stop rampant file-swapping of music and movies, of course, but Valenti described P2P networks instead as full of the "most throat-choking child porn" "on a scale so squalid it will shake the very core of your being." In 2003, he went on to tell Congress that copyright "pirates" and their goods accounted for "much of the money the international terror network depends on to feed its operations." To Patry, this is little more than fear-mongering, the creation of moral panics that are attached to "folk devils" like the "evil file-swapper" or the "dirty pirate" who are stealing American jobs. "Folk devils are a tool to accomplish social, political or commercial objectives, and there is no better way to gain society's acceptance of such control than through the manufacture of fear," he writes, "which explains the copyright industries' regular use of it." In Patry's view, the Copyright Wars have no morality to them at all; in reality, they are public relations campaigns waged with metaphors about issues that are essentially economic, and on which copyright owners are unwilling to face the future (or even the present). (Unlike most European copyright regimes, the American system is not based on the "moral rights" of an author.) "There is no reason to keep pretending that the Copyright Wars involve matters of morality or principle—they don't and never have. The Copyright Wars and their predecessors have always been about one thing and one thing only—a fruitless effort to resist, to the end, the very nature of capitalism, which is a dynamic, creative force by which new innovations and business models replace old ones." ### Strengths, weaknesses, and tpyos typos The best bits of the book come from Patry's deep well of legal knowledge, his historical understanding of copyright battles that have played out in Congress, and the theorizing on "moral panics" and the nature of metaphor.* Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars* is well-written, though it's not a "popular" book and casual readers may find themselves flipping pages, especially in the chapter on "the mythical origins of copyright" (representative subheading: "the utilitarian/consequentialist origin story"). And, as we noted at the beginning, the tone here gets so one-sided at points that all but the most hardened copyfighter will probably set the book down at some passages, scratch the chin, and ask, "Really?" Then there are the typos—present in such richness and variety that one is tempted to shed a tear for the proofreading department of mighty Oxford University Press. But there is much here that is essential, including Patry's thoughts on the "more is always better" copyright sickness that appears to be endemic in Washington. "Regrettably, policymakers (and even many copyright owners) have been taken in by the slogan that stronger rights are somehow not only inherently better but inherently necessary," he writes. "There is no empirical support for this view, and much evidence to the contrary. If stronger protection is always better, why not make the term of patent protection life of the inventor plus 70 years too? If stronger criminal laws are necessary to deter infringers, why not impose the death penalty, as China has done? The only type of laws we need are *effective* laws, laws that are effective for their purpose, in the case of copyright, to promote the progress of science, in the words of the US Constitution. "Copyright owners' problems are market problems, and they can only be solved by responding to market demands: strong copyright protection cannot make consumers buy things they do not want to buy and, as RIAA's ill-conceived, ill-executed, and ill-fated campaign of suing individuals demonstrates, laws cannot stop individuals from filesharing. Laws can, though, stifle innovation, and in this respect the copyright industries have been successful, and tragically so, for the public and for authors. Innovation leads to greater consumer demand and therefore greater profits for copyright owners." The book's final line darkly warns that "in other areas where a government monopoly, created to serve the public interest, is blatantly abused over a long period of time, it is taken away." The views may not be Google's, but it's not hard to see why Patry has landed at an aggregator and indexer of content rather than a creator of it. Which, in a way, is too bad--making him the top lawyer at the MPAA or RIAA would be fascinating to watch, though we're doubtful that those atop the big content industries share his easy confidence that innovation quickly produces greater profits, or that "less copyright law" can be "better copyright law." -- Pranesh Prakash Programme Manager Centre for Internet and Society W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 197 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20091104/c195fbd7/attachment.bin From pranesh at cis-india.org Thu Nov 12 01:26:16 2009 From: pranesh at cis-india.org (Pranesh Prakash) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:26:16 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Pharma MNCs campaigning against generics / Right to read for VIPs Message-ID: <4AFB16E0.3000105@cis-india.org> Apologies for cross-posting. http://www.businessline.in/cgi-bin/print.pl?file=2009111252151500.htm&date=2009/11/12/&prd=bl& ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pharma MNCs campaigning against domestic sector: Sharma ‘Some multinational firms continue to misinform, mislead and confuse’. Our Bureau New Delhi, Nov. 11 India complained to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on Wednesday that some multinational firms have launched a campaign against the country’s pharmaceutical industry. Mr Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce and Industry, told Mr Francis Gurry, Director General of WIPO, “We know how the campaign was there. Some multinational firms continue to misinform, mislead and confuse when it comes to the Indian generics, which have brought a major change in the world. “There was a time when there was suffocating stranglehold of multinational drug cartels in anti-retrovial drugs for HIV AIDS.” Several consignments of off-patent generic drugs by Indian firms have been seized in the recent past in Europe while being taken to Brazil and some African nations. It was Indian pharmaceutical firms that brought down the annual treatment cost of HIV AIDS to $400 from $11,000, said the Minister at a meeting organised by the WIPO and FICCI. Africa and Latin America are major markets for India’s low-cost drugs used for treatment of HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The two continents account for around 15 per cent of India’s pharmaceutical exports of about Rs 40,000 crore. Another long-standing issue discussed on Wednesday with the WIPO was the right to read for the visually challenged people. The treaty for visually challenged people, which has been tabled before the WIPO, was discussed in a meeting organised by the National Institute for the Visually Impaired, Daisy Forum of India and Centre for Internet and Society. The visually challenged community of India made a brief presentation and submission before Mr Gurry on India’s position with regard to availability of books in accessible formats for the visually challenged. © Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu Business Line -- Pranesh Prakash Programme Manager Centre for Internet and Society W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283 From pranesh at cis-india.org Thu Nov 12 17:17:37 2009 From: pranesh at cis-india.org (Pranesh Prakash) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:17:37 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] =?utf-8?q?WIPO_Director_General_Pledges_Support_for?= =?utf-8?q?_India=E2=80=99s_Visually_Impaired_Community?= Message-ID: <4AFBF5D9.7010103@cis-india.org> Dear all, WIPO seems to be giving all kinds of signal that the Treaty for the Blind is a very step forward for them. Regards, Pranesh http://www.ag-ip-news.com/GetArticle.asp?Art_ID=7785&lang=en 12/11/2009 07:07 GMT ag-IP-news WIPO Director General Pledges Support for India’s Visually Impaired Community GENEVA - The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General Francis Gurry met representatives of India’s visually impaired (VIP) community at a conference on the “Right to Read of persons with print disabilities and copyright challenges”. According to WIPO, the conference organized by the VIP community in cooperation with the Government of India in New Delhi on November 11, 2009, and reaffirmed WIPO’s commitment to supporting international attempts to improve access to copyright protected works by visually impaired persons (VIPs). “Let me assure you that this is a priority area for the World Intellectual Property Organization,” Gurry said. More than 314 million blind or visually impaired people around the world stand to benefit from a more flexible copyright regime adapted to current technological realities. Individuals with reading impairment often need to convert information into Braille, large print, audio, electronic and other formats using assistive technologies. It is estimated that only 5% of published books in developed countries are converted into formats accessible to the reading impaired. In India, however, only 0.5% of works are published in accessible formats. This has an adverse impact on the educational and employment opportunities of the country’s nearly 70 million reading impaired citizens. While, today, sighted individuals enjoy unprecedented access to copyright-protected content, in some contexts, social, economic, technological and legal factors, including the operation of copyright protection systems, can combine to seriously impede access to such works by the blind or other reading impaired persons. Widespread use of digital technologies, in particular, has prompted reconsideration of the question of how to maintain a balance between the protection available to copyright owners, and the needs of specific user groups, such as reading impaired persons. During the meeting, members of the Indian VIP community endorsed WIPO’s role in steering the VIP Initiative at the international level. Gurry reaffirmed his personal commitment to the specific needs of this community, particularly in developing and least-developed countries: He said innovation and affordability are key considerations when addressing the specific requirements of the VIP in developing countries. To move forward on these questions, Gurry noted, we will need to take join ranks with UN partners, namely the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), among others, to make best use of the expertise and skills that are available. The ITU for example, is particularly well placed to provide important technological inputs in the field of telephony and communications and to foster public-private partnerships in this area. Gurry welcomed India’s readiness to test the prototype guidelines for trusted intermediaries recently adopted by the WIPO Stakeholders’ Platform. The Director General said that WIPO was ready to explore options to support training/capacity building activities in India for VIPs within the framework of the VIP initiative. The New Delhi meeting reviewed a series of operational arrangements that could enable fast track access to certain copyright-protected works, particularly educational materials, in local Indian languages. It also focused on the need to incorporate the necessary flexibilities in the Indian Copyright Act 1957 for the benefit of print impaired persons. Representatives of key organizations such as the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped (NIVH), the Regional Resource Centre of the Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY), the Centre for Internet and Society and the Federation of Publishers’ & Booksellers’ Associations in India presented their views and concerns on the subject. The meeting was opened to a larger audience of authors, publishers, collective management organizations and librarians, among others. India’s former Ambassador of India to the United Nations in Geneva, Swashpawan Singh, honorary advisor on the VIP Initiative to the Director General of WIPO, also participated in the discussions. -- Pranesh Prakash Programme Manager Centre for Internet and Society W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283 From Dan.Pescod at rnib.org.uk Thu Nov 12 20:45:58 2009 From: Dan.Pescod at rnib.org.uk (Pescod, Dan) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:15:58 -0000 Subject: [Commons-Law] [A2k] WIPO Director General Pledges Support for India's Visually Impaired Community In-Reply-To: <4AFBF5D9.7010103@cis-india.org> Message-ID: Forgive me if I am missing something, but I see nothing in this item to suggest that Gurry backed the treaty proposal at all, even ambiguously. Rather, it seems that he was silent on that and used the umbrella term "VIP initiative" to describe work to help increase access to books for blind and partially sighted people. Regards, Dan -----Original Message----- From: a2k-admin at lists.essential.org [mailto:a2k-admin at lists.essential.org] On Behalf Of Pranesh Prakash Sent: 12 November 2009 11:48 To: A2K Discussion List; Commons Law Cc: Nirmita Narasimhan; Kajal Bhardwaj; Dipendra Manocha Subject: [A2k] WIPO Director General Pledges Support for India's Visually Impaired Community Dear all, WIPO seems to be giving all kinds of signal that the Treaty for the Blind is a very step forward for them. Regards, Pranesh http://www.ag-ip-news.com/GetArticle.asp?Art_ID=7785&lang=en 12/11/2009 07:07 GMT ag-IP-news WIPO Director General Pledges Support for India's Visually Impaired Community GENEVA - The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General Francis Gurry met representatives of India's visually impaired (VIP) community at a conference on the "Right to Read of persons with print disabilities and copyright challenges". According to WIPO, the conference organized by the VIP community in cooperation with the Government of India in New Delhi on November 11, 2009, and reaffirmed WIPO's commitment to supporting international attempts to improve access to copyright protected works by visually impaired persons (VIPs). "Let me assure you that this is a priority area for the World Intellectual Property Organization," Gurry said. More than 314 million blind or visually impaired people around the world stand to benefit from a more flexible copyright regime adapted to current technological realities. Individuals with reading impairment often need to convert information into Braille, large print, audio, electronic and other formats using assistive technologies. It is estimated that only 5% of published books in developed countries are converted into formats accessible to the reading impaired. In India, however, only 0.5% of works are published in accessible formats. This has an adverse impact on the educational and employment opportunities of the country's nearly 70 million reading impaired citizens. While, today, sighted individuals enjoy unprecedented access to copyright-protected content, in some contexts, social, economic, technological and legal factors, including the operation of copyright protection systems, can combine to seriously impede access to such works by the blind or other reading impaired persons. Widespread use of digital technologies, in particular, has prompted reconsideration of the question of how to maintain a balance between the protection available to copyright owners, and the needs of specific user groups, such as reading impaired persons. During the meeting, members of the Indian VIP community endorsed WIPO's role in steering the VIP Initiative at the international level. Gurry reaffirmed his personal commitment to the specific needs of this community, particularly in developing and least-developed countries: He said innovation and affordability are key considerations when addressing the specific requirements of the VIP in developing countries. To move forward on these questions, Gurry noted, we will need to take join ranks with UN partners, namely the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), among others, to make best use of the expertise and skills that are available. The ITU for example, is particularly well placed to provide important technological inputs in the field of telephony and communications and to foster public-private partnerships in this area. Gurry welcomed India's readiness to test the prototype guidelines for trusted intermediaries recently adopted by the WIPO Stakeholders' Platform. The Director General said that WIPO was ready to explore options to support training/capacity building activities in India for VIPs within the framework of the VIP initiative. The New Delhi meeting reviewed a series of operational arrangements that could enable fast track access to certain copyright-protected works, particularly educational materials, in local Indian languages. It also focused on the need to incorporate the necessary flexibilities in the Indian Copyright Act 1957 for the benefit of print impaired persons. Representatives of key organizations such as the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped (NIVH), the Regional Resource Centre of the Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY), the Centre for Internet and Society and the Federation of Publishers' & Booksellers' Associations in India presented their views and concerns on the subject. The meeting was opened to a larger audience of authors, publishers, collective management organizations and librarians, among others. India's former Ambassador of India to the United Nations in Geneva, Swashpawan Singh, honorary advisor on the VIP Initiative to the Director General of WIPO, also participated in the discussions. -- Pranesh Prakash Programme Manager Centre for Internet and Society W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283 _______________________________________________ A2k mailing list A2k at lists.essential.org http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k To report this e-mail as Spam, please forward it to: spam at mailcontrol.com -- DISCLAIMER: NOTICE: The information contained in this email and any attachments is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient you should not use, disclose, distribute or copy any of the content of it or of any attachment; you are requested to notify the sender immediately of your receipt of the email and then to delete it and any attachments from your system. 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RNIB Registered Charity Number: 226227 Website: http://www.rnib.org.uk This message has been scanned for viruses by Websense Hosted Security - http://www.websense.com/content/HostedEmailSecurity.aspx From manthanaward2009 at gmail.com Mon Nov 16 14:22:12 2009 From: manthanaward2009 at gmail.com (manthanaward2009 at gmail.com) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:22:12 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Invite for International Conclave on Digital Inclusion for Development & Manthan Award South Asia 2009 Message-ID: About Manthan Award South Asia 2009 Manthan Award is a first of its kind initiative in India and South Asia to scout and recognise innovative ICT and digital practices and innovations in digital Content and Creativity towards digital inclusion. The 6th edition of MASA 2009 is being held in New Delhi during December 18-19, 2009 at NCUI Complex. The 2009 edition has key event verticals across all major ICT and digital inclusion for development thematic areas in the region. Launched in 2004 by Digital Empowerment Foundation in knowledge partnership with World Summit Award,the Manthan Award has come to define the very best in digital content for development. Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, India, has been the key Government support partner. MASA 2009 Event Verticals * Micro Summit on e-Commerce, Entrepreneurship & Livelihood Generation * Consultation on 'Governance & Digital Constituencies * Consultation on Education & Learning * Consultation on Health, Science & Environment * Consultation on New Media & Community Broadcasting * Consultation on Mobile for Masses * IDRC India Social Science Research Conference & Award 2009 * MANTHAN AWARD SOUTH ASIA 2009 AWARD GALA EVENING * SOUTH ASIA REGIONAL ICT EXHIBITION ON DIGITAL INNOVATIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT Categories for Award Recognition for MASA 2009 Community Broadcasting, E-Business & Commerce, E-Culture & Entertainment, E-Education, E-Enterprise & Livelihood, E-Entertainment, E-Science & Environment, E-Governance, E-Health, E-Inclusion, E-Learning, E-Localisation, E-News & M-Content The Manthan Award Reach & Spin Offs * 2007 -> 353 Nominations -> 39 Winners * 2008 -> 400 Nominations -> 33 Winners * 2009 -> 378 Nominations -> 45 Winners * Facilitating national digital movement through national award platforms in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2009 Partners Key partners for Manthan Award South Asia 2009: World Summit Award, Austria / DIT, Govt. of India / Internet Society / Association for Progressive Communications / D.Net, Bangladesh / ICTA, Sri Lanka / Ministry of ICT, Afghanistan / BNNRC, Bangladesh / FIIT Nepal Intel / IBM / Nokia Siemens Networks / NIXI / IAMAI / Mint / Gujarat Knowledge Society / MAIT / NISG / IGNOU / Edurite / KPMG / TFTP / Social Impact International Scope for Association The opportunity for association with the Manthan Award South Asia 2009 Event Programme is currently open. Interested partners may associate for: * Sponsorship & Partnership * Exhibition partner * Publication partner * Hospitality partner * Logistics partner Communications & Contact To know more about the Manthan Award South Asia 2009 Programme and for partnership options please contact: The Manthan Award South Asia 2009 Secretariat 44, III Floor, Kalu Sarai, New Delhi-110017, India Tel: 91-11-26532786 / 26532787 E: manthanaward at defindia.net W: www.manthanaward.org ; www.defindia.net Resource persons Ms. Priyanka Chouhan ( priyanka at defindia.net ) Mr. Syed S. ( syed at defindia.net ) Unsubscribe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20091116/84ddc2e5/attachment.html From pranesh at cis-india.org Tue Nov 17 21:55:45 2009 From: pranesh at cis-india.org (Pranesh Prakash) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:25:45 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] German IT Industry Body Claims Software Patents Are Unconstitutional Message-ID: <4B02CE89.8020406@cis-india.org> A German body representing more than 600 SMEs believes that software patents are unconstitutional under German law: http://www.bikt.de/pmdetail.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=2&tx_ttnews[backPid]=46&cHash=8f32a0fb31 Mittwoch, 15. April 2009 ## Establishment of ICT association BIKT - statement on software-related patents ### Hamburg, April 15th, 2009. The newly-established Bundesverband Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie (Federal Association Information and Communications Technology) BIKT introduced itself to the general public today. The industry association sees itself as a representative safeguarding the interests in particular of small and midsize businesses in the ICT industry. The core goals of the association are to promote innovation, improve the general conditions for companies in the ICT industry and strengthen the competitiveness of ICT users. The focus here is on the interests of small and midsize companies. Additionally the BIKT wants to go beyond strictly industry-oriented topics and intends to promote more social responsibility in the ICT industry. The positive echo among the established industry federations shows the great need for a new platform to bundle common interests. Right from the start the BIKT can already count five renowned federations among its members: the Berufsverband Selbständige in der Informatik (BVSI), the Kölner Internet Union (KIU), the Linux Verband and the automation associations patentverein.de and Open Source Automation Development Lab (OSADL). The board of directors at BIKT consists of the businessmen Johannes Sommer, Marco Schulze and Dirk Hillbrecht. They run their own consulting and software companies in Hamburg, Freiburg and Hanover. The discussion of the various aspects of copyrights, patent law and other intellectual property rights are of special significance for the BIKT. The association has published on its internet site a statement related to the current appeal proceedings at the European Patent Office (EPO) regarding the issue of patentability of computer programs and takes a clear stand against the granting of software-related patents. The BIKT [statement][1] was prepared by the lawyer [Rasmus Keller][2] from Viersen and is based on his [legal study][3] which was published recently. He presents clear arguments explaining that the granting of software-related patents represents an encroachment on the exploitation rights of software developers which cannot be reconciled with constitutional law. As a consequence, the granting of such patents is categorically impermissible. [1]: http://www.bikt.de/fileadmin/redakteur/pdf/statement_G0308.pdf [2]: http://www.rasmuskeller.de [3]: http://www.bikt.de/fileadmin/redakteur/pdf/theses.pdf In view of the outstanding significance of the issues raised in the EPO proceedings for the entire ICT industry, the association has made it possible for third parties to intervene in support of the statement up to the end of April. The intervention is free of charge and independent of the membership in the BIKT. The statement will be submitted to the current proceedings at the European Patent Office on behalf of all of the signers. Note: the time limit for joining the BIKT statement has expired. Klick on this link to access the list of parties who joined the BIKT statement: [// List of parties who joined the BIKT statement][4] [4]: http://www.bikt.de/fileadmin/redakteur/pdf/stellungnahme_Beigetretene.pdf "Initiates file download" -- Pranesh Prakash Programme Manager Centre for Internet and Society W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 197 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20091117/656be111/attachment.bin From krishnaswamysudhir at gmail.com Fri Nov 20 11:53:03 2009 From: krishnaswamysudhir at gmail.com (Sudhir Krishnaswamy) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:53:03 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Working of the Biodiversity Act Message-ID: <00e001ca69a9$ed905890$c8b109b0$@com> Dear all The Biodiversity Act is the centre piece of the legislative efforts to create a regulatory regime around biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge. Kanchi Kohli takes a critical look at one of the applications granted by the National Biodiversity Authority to collect blood samples and hair of the Indian Wild Ass. Notice the primary role of a state funded lab in making the application. http://www.indiatogether.org/cgi-bin/tools/pfriend.cgi She concludes that granting state regulatory control over biodiversity fails to ensure conservation or prevent the misappropriation of knowledge rights. Best Sudhir -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20091120/42ed802f/attachment.html