[Upd-discuss] #2 Copyright Brief History

[Michael Hart]

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On Tue, 7 Sep 2004, François Briatte wrote:

> My statement :
>
>>> The point is : governments have encouraged WIPO to live on its own 
>>> funds.
>
> Yours:
>
>> BUSINESSES ENCOURAGING GOVERNMENTS TO CREATE COPYRIGHT LAWS.
>
> I am not sure we are discussing the same point. I was pointing to the fact 
> that member states have incited WIPO to raise its own funds. I was not 
> discussing copyright laws at all.

I really think you have it backwards here. . .WIPO, and its
predecessors, all the way back to the Statutes of Anne and Mary,
have always been "company stores."

The real issue is that "the member states" don't run WIPO,
WIPO runs the member states, as far as copyright law goes.

WIPO doesn't WANT to be funded by outsiders. . .publishers
want complete control, secrecy, anonymity, etc., and still
to operate with the force of law.

This is how they do it. . .their own funding, their own rules,
no accountability to anyone. . .yet they write most copyright law.

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