[A2k] Invitation: IPR at the G8 summit in Germany - Civil Society Meeting

[Petra Buhr]

Hi there!

We, the Netzwerk Freies Wissen (Free Knowledge Network) from Germany
want to invite activists from all over the world to a meeting with the
German Civil Society on April 13-15 in Germany. You'll find the program
below.

Our idea is to bring together activists and interested people with very
variable backgrounds, working on different aspects of IPR, coming from
diverse countries in a three day meeting. We want to share ideas and
strategies between all participants concerning politics of IPR,
especially concerning the politics with regard to the G8 Summit in
Germany in June 2007. Also we want to adopt a Civil society statement on
Access to knowledge towards the summit.

Our chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that she will use the German
EU-Council presidency and the G8 presidency to strengthen IPR in the
whole world and especially in Europe. Concerning the G8 summit she is
especially interested in a common position of the G8 concerning future
initiatives for more IPR-legislation on an international level, which
Merkel intents to begin in the near future. Also she intents to start a
new dialogue on IPR enforcement between the G8 countries and the newly
industrializing countries Brazil, India, South Africa, Mexico and China,
whom she has already invited to participate in part in the G8 summit.

Our interest is to build up a broad coalition against this policy.
* We don't need more IPR, neither on the international nor on the
national level.
* There should be no dialog between newly industrializing and G8
countries. The forum for this are the WIPO discussions on a development
agenda.

It would be great if many people could come together and plan to stay
until sunday afternoon. Apart from the time throughout the meeting that
can be used to discuss things, we are planning a three-hour session on
Sunday afternoon to talk about concrete action and campaign ideas as
well as starting the organizational process.

We also started a mailinglist to discuss the declaration and actions
against those policies. This also will be the place where we can keep in
touch after the meeting. It would be great if many people would
participate in the discussion. We now have a very clear picture of
Merkels policies but lack a clear glance what is going on in other
countries.

To subscribe please follow the link or send a message to me:
http://lists.wissensallmende.de/mailman/listinfo/g8-2007.

We will need a strong civil society coalition against the plans of the
German government in national and international IPR politics - help us
to build one.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Best regards,

Petra Buhr,
Netzwerk Freies Wissen (Free Knowledge Network)
*******************************************

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY- A THREAT TO DEVELOPMENT AND JUSTICE.

CONFERENCE OF THE GERMAN CIVIL SOCIETY IN PREPARATION OF THE G8 SUMMIT
2007 IN GERMANY

April 13 - 15, 2007 in Villigst 1

Organized by Protestant Development Service (EED, www.eed.de),
Protestant Academy Iserlohn (www.kircheundgesellschaft.de), and Free
Knowledge Network (www.wissensallmende.de)
PROGRAM:

These are the main items. Meals and breaks are omitted for brevitiy. Not
all participants have yet accepted the invitation.

*** Friday, April 13 7pm till 9pm ***

* Introduction to the political economy of the access to knowledge
(Amy Kapczynski, Yale Information Society Project)

*** Saturday, April 14, 9am till 8:30 pm ***

* Panel: Criticism of the global south on intellectual property rights
(Martin Khor, Third World Network)

* Panel: North-South IP issues: medicine, seeds and biopiracy (Oliver
Moldenhauer, Doctors without Borders, Mute Schimpf, catholic develpment
agency Misereor, Michael Frein, protestant development agencey EED)

* Panel: Most important issues in the North: Bio patents, filesharing
and copyrights and education (Christine v. Weizs=E4cker, Petra Buhr,
Netzwerk Freies Wissen, Prof. Rainer Kuhlen, German Copyright Alliance -
an alliance of scholars, research institutions and librarians for free
access)

* Panel: How to further innovation? What are the alternative incentive
systems? (James Love, CPTech)

* Roundtable Discussion: Importance of the Commons for a society. -
Putting the knowledge commons in the context of commons like the
atmosphere, social cohesion or infrastructure


*** Sunday, April 15, 9 am till 16:00 ***

* Presentation and adoption of the Civil society statement on Access to
knowledge towards the 2007 G8 summit The statement is being prepared in
email-discussions before the conference, so that only minor changes will
be necessary during the conference. The editing committee will meet in
breakes and evenings

* Comments to the statement by the German Government and Industry Mr.
Benterbusch, German Sherpa office Ms. Yzer, German Association of the
researching pharmaceutical industry

*Panel On the Civil Society Statement Mr. Benterbusch, German Sherpa
office Ms. Yzer, German Association of the researching pharmaceutical
indutry Martin Khor, Third World Network, James Love, CPTech/KEI

* After the lunch break there will be the possibility to meet to discuss
and coordinate and prepare actions around the G8 summit in Heiligendamm
(3 hours meeting).

VENUE:
Protestant academy in Villigst, Germany (near cologne). International
guests should arrive at cologne airport, from there you will need
approximately 1 hour to get to Villigst. For help please contact me or
Ulrike Neuhaus (see contact details below).

REGISTRATION FEE:
The early registration fee for the conference participants is 97 =A4
(single room) or 82 =A4 (double room), including full board.

CONTACT TO REGISTER:
Ulrike Neuhaus
02371 / 352-145
Fax:
02371 / 352-169
E-Mail:
u.neuhaus@kircheundgesellschaft.de