[Ecommerce] WIPOUT ANNOUNCES ITS CONTEST WINNERS

Fri Apr 26 18:16:01 2002

Press release from WIPOUT                      contact@wipout.net

26 April 2002                                              www.wipout.net

WIPOUT ANNOUNCES ITS CONTEST WINNERS

WIPOUT, the international intellectual property counter-essay contest, today
announces its eleven winners on the day that has been tagged "World
Intellectual Property Day" by the World Intellectual Property Organisation
(WIPO).

The winners, selected by an international panel of judges, live in six
countries across the globe and submitted essays in four different languages:
English, French, German, and Spanish. They are named below and are also
available on the WIPOUT web site at:  www.wipout.net

"The obvious interest in the counter-essay contest and the high quality of
the entries show that a growing number of people are dissenting from WIPO's
dangerous stance that more and more extensive protection of more and more
forms of intellectual property is a good thing," the WIPOUT co-chairs stated
today.

A total of 77 essays were submitted from 18 countries in response to the
question: WHAT DOES INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MEAN TO YOU IN YOUR DAILY LIFE?

Earlier in 2001, WIPO, a United Nations organisation, had set up an essay
contest that asked the same question. But WIPOUT organisers decided that a
WIPO-sponsored contest would fail to appreciate the damage that the
over-protection of intellectual property is doing to education, health care,
the environment, and economic security for millions around the globe.

As Noam Chomsky, one of the more than 50 individuals and groups who endorsed
WIPOUT said, this counter contest reminds people that "this harsh regime [of
intellectual property rights] is designed to grant multinational
corporations control over the technology of the future.it really is a
scandal."  (The complete list of contest endorsers can be found at:
http://www.wipout.net/endorsers.html ).

All of the 77 essays submitted, including the winning essays, are available
on the WIPOUT site, www.wipout.net .The essays to WIPOUT came from the USA,
UK, Republic of South Africa, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Japan,
Australia, Greece, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Netherlands,
New Zealand, France, People's Republic of China and Bulgaria.

Among other issues, the 77 essays reveal:

- how illiterate persons in South Africa are required to pay copyright
royalty fees if they wish to learn to read.and hence don't get the
opportunity.
-  how the conductor of a volunteer church choir in the United States could
not lead his choir in a proper public performance, again because of
copyright restrictions;
-  how drug patents are blocking access to desperately needed anti HIV/AIDS
drugs.and again, how copyright royalties are charged for anti-HIV health
materials;
- how the TRIPS agreement is turning into a cruel hoax for countries of the
South;
- how IP laws are transforming the Internet into a restrictive, user-pay
experience.
- how the patenting of plants and genes is doing great damages to the
interests of farmers and consumers.

Among the contributions are poems, drawings, short stories, fictional IP
"nightmare scenarios" of coming years, calls to action, parodies, historical
explorations, and theoretical critiques of intellectual property.

Each of the winners will receive a small financial prize from the WIPOUT
prize fund that was created primarily through a generous donation from the
Center for the Public Domain in the United States.

" Our small group of volunteers hardly has the financial or publicity
resources of WIPO, which is housed in palatial head offices beside Lake
Geneva in Switzerland, and so we think it was a good accomplishment to get
50% of number of essays that WIPO's contest received."  WIPO is also
announcing its essay contest winners today.

WIPOUT is an international organisation consisting of academics, artists,
musicians and other activists. Future projects and programmes are now under
discussion.

The WIPOUT contest started on 4 September 2001 and concluded on 15 March
2002.

Today WIPOUT celebrates the winners, but the competitive aspect of the
contest was always secondary to the purpose of giving a platform to the
voices who disagree with the constant expansion of intellectual property
protection.

NAMES OF WIPOUT CONTEST WINNERS, TITLES OF THEIR ESSAYS, AND THEIR LOCATION
(THE NAMES ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER.)

NAMES OF WIPOUT CONTEST WINNERS, TITLES OF THEIR ESSAYS, AND THEIR LOCATION
(THE NAMES ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER.)

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WINNERS

John Cahir, ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND POLITICAL ACTION, London, United
Kingdom.  http://www.wipout.net/essays/0113cahir.htm

Jason Holt, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AFFECTS MY LIFE, Provo, Utah, United
States of America. http://www.wipout.net/essays/0216holt.htm

Eddan Elizafon Katz, MY FIRST SEVEN DAYS ON THE INTERNET, Oakland,
California, United States of America.
http://www.wipout.net/essays/0315katz.htm

Vijaya Kumar, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS - AN OBSTACLE TO DEVELOPMENT?,
Dangolia, Kandy, Sri Lanka.
http://www.wipout.net/essays/0314kumar.htm

Denise Nicholson, DOES COPYRIGHT HAVE ANY SIGNIFANCE IN THE LIVES OF
ILLITERATE OR VISUALLY-IMPAIRED PERSONS?, Johannesburg,  South
Africa.http://www.wipout.net/essays/1128nicholson.htm

Percy Schmeiser, GENETIC CONTAMINATION AND FARMERS' RIGHTS, Bruno,
Saskatchewan, Canada.  http://www.wipout.net/essays/0904schmeiser.htm

Louise Szente, THE CROW AND THE OWL, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
http://www.wipout.net/essays/1112szente.htm

Philip Tagg, COPYRIGHT VS. THE DEMOCRATIC RIGHT TO KNOW, Liverpool, United
Kingdom. http://www.wipout.net/essays/1112tagg.htm

FRENCH-LANGUAGE WINNER

Alexandre Pirsch, ANTHROPOLOGIE ET DROITS D'AUTEUR: (D)ÉCRIRE L'AUTRE ET LE
(DÉ)POSSÉDER (ANTHROPOLOGY AND COPYRIGHT:
HOW "WRITING" CAN DEPRIVE THE OTHER OF HIS/HER RIGHTS.) Montreal, Quebec,
Canada.  http://www.wipout.net/essays/0315pirsch.htm

GERMAN-LANGUAGE WINNER

Alesch Staehelin, SUCHE NACH BILLIGEN AIDS-MEDIKAMENTEN (THE SEARCH FOR
CHEAP AIDS DRUGS ) Venice, California, United States.
http://www.wipout.net/essays/0310staehelin.htm

SPANISH-LANGUAGE WINNER
Juan Mateos Garcia, DERECHOS DE PROPIEDAD INTELECTUAL Y ESPACIOS DE
INFORMACIÓN PÚBLICA (INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND THE INFORMATION
COMMONS ), Salamanca, Spain. http://www.wipout.net/essays/1012garcia.htm

NOTE TO NEWS EDITORS:

1. More details of the contest are available on the Wipout website at:
www.wipout.net

2. If you would like to arrange an interview or have further questions about
WIPOUT, here are the persons to contact:

IN THE UNITED KINGDOM -

Alan Story Dr Lee Marshall
Kent Law School Department of Sociology
University of Kent University College Worcester
Canterbury Henwick Grove
Kent CT2 7NS Worcester WR2 6AJ
44 (0)1227 823316 44 (0)1905 855312
a.c.story@ukc.ac.uk l.marshall@worc.ac.uk

IN THE UNITED STATES :

Debora Halbert
Associate Professor of Political Science
Otterbein College
Dept. of History and Political Science
Westerville OH 43081
(614) 823-1559
DHalbert@otterbein.edu

IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Brian Martin
Science, Technology & Society
University of Wollongong, NSW 2522
Australia
phone +61-2-4221 3763 work,
fax      +61-2-4221 3452
brian_martin@uow.edu.au

3. Details of the WIPO contest can be found at:
http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/alert/2001/ma03rev.htm

Press release issued by WIPOUT, The Intellectual Property Counter Essay
Contest                                                  contact@wipout.net

Alan Story
WIPOUT
contact@wipout.net

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