[A2k] FSFE written intervention to WIPO CDIP/3 on ICT and the Digital Divide

[Georg C. F. Greve]

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[ http://blogs.fsfe.org/?p=3D340 ]

                 FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION EUROPE (FSFE)

                  STATEMENT TO THE 3rd SESSION OF THE

      COMMITTEE ON DEVELOPMENT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (CDIP/3)

                     ON DOCUMENT CDIP/3/4 ANNEX III

                    (Geneva, 27 April =E2=80=93 1 May 2009)

With regards to the project on IP, Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) and the Digital Divide, the Free Software Foundation
Europe would like to make a couple of suggestions, beginning with a
reference to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) Information Economy Report 2007-2008.

The report emphasises how growth and innovation enabled by Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs) across all of economy outweighs
growth and innovation in the ICT sector itself.

The second point we would like to highlight is the role of Open
Innovation Models, which are responsible for the majority of innovative
leaps, as also shown in the studies of Prof. Eric von Hippel, Professor
and Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan
School of Management.

>From this we can derive two important principles that should guide our
work: Maximising ICT ubiquity and availability will maximise innovation
and development across all sectors of economy and secondly we need to
protect the ability of all people around the world to innovate. This
translates into a necessity to avoid the creation of an =1B-Y=C2=B4innovati=
ve
glass ceiling=C2=A1 through barriers to market entry in the form of barrier=
s
to access to standards, ICTs, and other prerequisites for an open,
competitive market.

Free Software offers unique benefits both in terms of ubiquity of
technologies, as well as in facilitating innovation through extensive
rights for all users, all of which are thereby enabled as potential
innovators for the type of leapfrogging innovation described by Prof von
Hippel and the UNCTAD Information Economy Report.

FSFE would therefore suggest to harness the full potential of ICTs and
the WIPO Technical Assistance activities by ensuring explicit provision
of Free Software competency through the project in the spirit of the
inclusive, balanced approach mandated by the Development Agenda and the
referenced World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

For this, FSFE would like to offer its support through the network
facilitated by our legal department. With over 190 participants across
27 countries and four continents spanning a broad spectrum of interests
engaging in Free Software, the network appears to be the largest legal
support structure for Free Software in the world. On the network, the
world's leading experts from the academic and private sector work on
state of the art issues and develop best practices for commercial
development and deployment of Free Software.

We believe that access to this information would be useful for WIPO and
its Member States and would suggest to foresee creation of a channel for
this kind of information as part of the project.

             --- Statement by Georg C.F. Greve <greve@fsfeurope.org>
                          Free Software Foundation Europe, President


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Georg C. F. Greve                                 <greve@fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe=09                 (http://fsfeurope.org)
President                                      +41 43 500 03 66 ext 400
http://fsfeurope.org/about/greve            http://blogs.fsfe.org/greve
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