[Ecommerce] FromGeneva: Chile's presentation of its proposal (Day 2-WIPO PCDA)

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://fromgeneva.blogspot.com/2006/02/day-2-chiles-presentation-of-its.html


      Day 2: Chile's presentation of its proposal

Tuesday, 21 February 2006
Thiru Balasubramaniam

The morning session continued with general statements on the Development
Agenda process.

The afternoon session resumed with a focused discussion of the Chilean
proposal. Chile made a detailed presentation of its proposal. Chile
elaborated on its three main points: (1) recognizing the value of the
public domain, (2) the "importance of complementary systems to and in
intellectual property" and (3) conducting a "study for assessing what
are the appropriate levels of intellectual property, considering the
particular situation in each country, specifically its degree of
development and institutional capacity".

On the public domain, Chile stressed that its intentions were not about
attributing a monetary value to the public domain but rather to
recognize its inherent value to society. He noted that the benefits of a
rich and vibrant public domain were obvious to the education, government
and business sectors. For patent offices, the public domain could be
used to see what prior art was available throughout the world.

The delegated reiterated that Chile's starting premise was that

    nothing is created out of nothing. The greater the works in the
    public domain the greater the creation. We don't want to put fences
    around the public domain.


The delegate noted that patents and copyright laws could have a negative
effect on the public. He reminded the committee that around a 100 years
ago, various limits were put on the public domain through these laws. He
remarked that while they may have been justified one by one, taken as a
whole, they have reduced the public domain.

According to Chile,

    [c]opyright was originally designed to protect author's rights,
    artists and performers. We are now discussing new rightholders that
    can have claims to the same work. The number of rights conferred on
    rightholders have increased. And we have increased the terms of
    protection of both copyright and patent.


Chile reminded Member States with respective to retrospective
protection, there exists a presumption about the ownership of works
under Article 18 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty. There are so-called
"orphan works" Chile said that some industrialized country legislation
dealt with this problem.

Chile noted a national initiative to digitalize all copyright works so
they would be available when they move into the public domain.

With respect to its second proposal on complementary systems to and in
intellectual property, Chile noted that WIPO should have a discussion on
creative commons and free and open source software. Chile noted that
while there could be difficulties in setting up a permanent forum to
discuss these complementary systems, the delegate suggested that a
time-limited electronic discussion forum or its inclusion as a standing
agenda item in a WIPO Committee as a means for further consideration at
WIPO.

With respect to its proposal on impact assessments on the effects of IP
on development. Chile suggested country studies on specific issues such
as patents and copyright, L&E, and alternative systems. The study could
comprise a small selection of developing and developed countries on a
voluntary basis. Chile indicated its willingness to participate in such
a study.

A substantive debate followed Chile's presentation which I will blog on
in the near future.

Here is a list of public interest NGO interventions in support of the
Chilean proposal.

Civil Society Coalition (CSC)
<http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/a2k/2006-February/000957.html>
IP Justice <http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/DA022106.shtml>
Third World Network
<http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/a2k/2006-February/000959.html>
3D
<http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/ip-health/2006-February/009128.html>

Thanks to Gwen Hinze (EFF) and Teresa Hackett (eIFL) for inputs.
/posted by Thiru Balasubramaniam @ 12:36 PM
<http://fromgeneva.blogspot.com/2006/02/day-2-chiles-presentation-of-its.html>/