[Upd-discuss] #2 Copyright Brief History

[Michael Hart]

On Mon, 13 Sep 2004, Richard Stallman wrote:

>    In sum, WIPO indeed enjoys a certain degree of autonomy, but its
>    convention, its decision making procedures and the global satisfaction
>    index from states concerning it makes it a tool of member states.
>
> WIPO gives funds to national patent offices, and provides junkets to
> fancy resorts for the officials from patent offices.  (I think the
> funds come to a large extent from the US government or from business.)

I think the funds come nearly entirely from business funding, businesses
which also spend a fortune lobbying the governments with efforts from
both inside and outside WIPO.


> And the representatives to WIPO have usually come from these patent
> offices.  As a result, they have tended to vote for what WIPO wants,
> rather than trying to represent their countries' "national interests".

It's what was known in ye olde dayes as "an interlocking directorate."


> To some extent this is starting to change--some countries are
> recognizing that WIPO could hurt them, and are now sending
> representatives to WIPO with orders to work for a specified agenda.

As evidenced all the way from the case of German copyright extensions
back around 1965? through the pressure on the EU to extend, to the
current pressure that will obvious cause the Australian copyright
to fall and be reinstated with another 20 years of monopoly protection,
it is obvious that even a a major country such as Australia, who passed
a Parliamentary Resolution on 1,000 days ago NOT to extend copyrights,
has no chance against the economic warfare being waged in the arena of
modern copyright.


> One would have expected it to work this way all along, but apparently
> it did not.

The sooner we accept that WIPO has really declared WAR in these cases,
the sooner we can properly address the situation.

As long as we presume WIPO is any more than PRETENDING to consider the
masses or the public domain, we are in the wrong boat, and rowing nowhere,
while WIPO is running full speed ahead with the most modern engines.


Thanks!!!


Nice To Hear From You!


Michael


Give FreeBooks!!!
In 33 Languages!!!

As of September 12, 2004
~13,760 FreeBooks at:
http://gutenberg.net
~1,240 to go to 15,000

We are 1/3+ of the way
from 10,000 to 20,000.

Michael S. Hart
<hart@pobox.com>
Project Gutenberg
Executive Coordinator
"*Internet User ~#100*"

If you do not receive
a prompt reply, please
resend, keep resending.