[A2k] EDRI's interventions

[Ville Oksanen]

Second:

I would like first to thank the chair for the chance to address this
meeting again.  As usual I=92ll be very brief.

European Digital rights represents 17 privacy and civil rights
organizations from eleven different countries around Europe.

As stated in our previous intervention, EDRI would like to stress the
importance of the creation of the independent WIPO Evaluation and
Research Office as described in the item Five based on the proposal by
the Friends of the Development.

We strongly believe that all decision making should be based on the best
scientific knowledge available. Only a totally independent unit, which
uses the best practices of the science, can produce results, can be
trusted by all stakeholders.

It should be noted that - in general - the current state of academic
research on different aspects of IPRs leaves a lot to be desired. For
example, research on the economics of copyright is still very immature
and seriously lacks resources because the traditional centers of
economic research are not really active in the area.  A strong,
specialized research unit could help foster research and also encourage
suitably qualified people to choose the field, which currently is often
regarded as obscure and difficult to approach.

An independent research office would be very helpful for the certain
other proposed actions, which EDRI warmly supports.  For example, it
would be natural candidate for executing the =93Development Impact
Assessments=94 as explained in item 8 and for developing the Indicators
and Benchmarks for Evaluation of Technical Assistance described in the
item 13.

Thank you.


First:

I would like first to thank the chair for the chance to address this
meeting. I=92ll be very brief.

European Digital rights represents 17 privacy and civil rights
organisations from 11 different countries around Europe.

As stated in our previous intervention, we strongly support the proposal
by the =93Friends of the development=94 Similarly, we believe that Brazil=
=92s
suggestion for the structure of the discussion would offer the best
opportunity for this meeting to cover the all different aspects of
current proposals on the table. We firmly stress that the further
discussion should not be limited to the technical assistance alone.

Secondly, EDRI also welcomes United Kingdom=92s redefined proposal to
strengthen the role of Permanent Committee on Co-operation for
Development related to Intellectual Property as a positive first step.
However, in our opinion, the proposal still lacks substantial content
and therefore it should be only considered together with the much
extensive elements of  the Friends of Development=92s proposal.

Finally, EDRI likes to stress the importance of the creation of the
independent WIPO Evaluation and Research Office. In our view all
decision making should be based on the best scientific knowledge
available and the office would help to facilitate this goal.

Thank you.