[Upd-discuss] Obligation to Finance Free and Open Public Knowledge Goods
James Love
james.love@cptech.org
Tue, 01 Feb 2005 08:15:07 -0500
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [A2k] Obligation to Finance Free and Open Public Knowledge Goods
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2005 08:06:16 -0500
From: James Love <james.love@cptech.org>
To: a2k@lists.essential.org
Proposal: Obligation to Finance Free and Open Public Knowledge Goods
Version February 1, 2005
The following is a response to innovative projects such as the South Africa
Free High School Science Textbook (FHSST) project, the Creative Commons,
the free software movement, the open access publishing movement, and
many other efforts to create free/open public goods. The benefits of
free open public goods are large, particularly for access to knowledge.
But financing is a problem. Who wants to pay for something that
everyone will have for free?
The proposal, modelled somewhat after obligations in the proposed
medical R&D treaty, would create obligations for countries to support
financial incentives for the creation of works that are open, and
available to the world for free. The financing mechanism would be left
to national governments, and include such instruments as tax credits,
government grants, distributions from collection societies, charitable
contributions, etc.
1. Amount of Obligation would vary by GDP and level of development
The amount of the obligation would be linked to the country GDP, and the
county level of development. This is quite rough, but consider for
example, an obligation of 1 basis point (.001 of GDP), adjusted downward
using a sliding scale based upon the relative position on the UNDP Human
Development Index (the approach taken in the Canadian royalty guidelines
for exports of medicines). This is illustrated below in Table 1.
2. Tradable Credits for priority projects
The Treaty could create a process for identifying projects of particular
merit, using such measures as:
a. Peer review,
b. Citations by scholars,
c. Actual use as measured by surveys of downloads,
d. Etc
Projects that address certain subject matter (software, educational
teaching materials like open textbooks, open access journals and
archives, research databases, preservation and dissemination of local
knowledge, neglected scholarship, the transfer of technology among /to
developing countries etc) that also demonstrate merit would be eligible
for special tradable credits.
Persons, organizations or governments that earned such credits could
sell them to countries were below quotas.
3. Development Objectives
The Treaty could promote development in several different ways. It
could grant higher credits for projects in developing countries, require
high-income countries to purchase credits from developing countries,
emphasize technology transfer project credits, recognize credits for
neglected scholarship in developing countries, etc.
The Treaty could also consider such approaches as reverse purchasing
power parity (ppp) to adjust the value of inputs from developing when
determining the value of credits to a high-income purchaser.
Table 1, Share of GDP to Support Creation of Open Public Knowledge Goods
HDR Rank Basis Point of GDP Country
1 1.00 Norway
2 0.99 Sweden
3 0.99 Australia
4 0.98 Canada
5 0.98 Netherlands
6 0.97 Belgium
7 0.97 Iceland
8 0.96 United States
9 0.95 Japan
10 0.95 Ireland
11 0.94 Switzerland
12 0.94 United Kingdom
13 0.93 Finland
14 0.93 Austria
15 0.92 Luxembourg
16 0.92 France
17 0.91 Denmark
18 0.90 New Zealand
19 0.90 Germany
20 0.89 Spain
21 0.89 Italy
22 0.88 Israel
23 0.88 Hong Kong SAR
24 0.87 Greece
25 0.86 Singapore
26 0.86 Portugal
27 0.85 Slovenia
28 0.85 Korea Rep. of
29 0.84 Barbados
30 0.84 Cyprus
31 0.83 Malta
32 0.82 Czech Republic
33 0.82 Brunei Darussalam
34 0.81 Argentina
35 0.81 Seychelles
36 0.80 Estonia
37 0.80 Poland
38 0.79 Hungary
39 0.79 Saint Kitts and Nevis
40 0.78 Bahrain
41 0.77 Lithuania
42 0.77 Slovakia
43 0.76 Chile
44 0.76 Kuwait
45 0.75 Costa Rica
46 0.75 Uruguay
47 0.74 Qatar
48 0.73 Croatia
49 0.73 United Arab Emirates
50 0.72 Latvia
51 0.72 Bahamas
52 0.71 Cuba
53 0.71 Mexico
54 0.70 Trinidad and Tobago
55 0.69 Antigua and Barbuda
56 0.69 Bulgaria
57 0.68 Russian Federation
58 0.68 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
59 0.67 Malaysia
60 0.67 Macedonia TFYR
61 0.66 Panama
62 0.66 Belarus
63 0.65 Tonga
64 0.64 Mauritius
65 0.64 Albania
66 0.63 Bosnia and Herzegovina
67 0.63 Suriname
68 0.62 Venezuela
69 0.62 Romania
70 0.61 Ukraine
71 0.60 Saint Lucia
72 0.60 Brazil
73 0.59 Colombia
74 0.59 Oman
75 0.58 Samoa Western
76 0.58 Thailand
77 0.57 Saudi Arabia
78 0.56 Kazakhstan
79 0.56 Jamaica
80 0.55 Lebanon
81 0.55 Fiji
82 0.54 Armenia
83 0.54 Philippines
84 0.53 Maldives
85 0.53 Peru
86 0.52 Turkmenistan
87 0.51 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
88 0.51 Turkey
89 0.50 Paraguay
90 0.50 Jordan
91 0.49 Azerbaijan
92 0.49 Tunisia
93 0.48 Grenada
94 0.47 China
95 0.47 Dominica
96 0.46 Sri Lanka
97 0.46 Georgia
98 0.45 Dominican Republic
99 0.45 Belize
100 0.44 Ecuador
101 0.44 Iran
102 0.43 Occupied Palestinian Territories
103 0.42 El Salvador
104 0.42 Guyana
105 0.41 Cape Verde
106 0.41 Syrian Arab Republic
107 0.40 Uzbekistan
108 0.40 Algeria
109 0.39 Equatorial Guinea
110 0.38 Kyrgyzstan
111 0.38 Indonesia
112 0.37 Vietnam
113 0.37 Moldova
114 0.36 Bolivia
115 0.36 Honduras
116 0.35 Tajikistan
117 0.34 Mongolia
118 0.34 Nicaragua
119 0.33 South Africa
120 0.33 Egypt
121 0.32 Guatemala
122 0.32 Gabon
123 0.31 Sao Tome and Principe
124 0.31 Solomon Islands
125 0.30 Morocco
126 0.29 Namibia
127 0.29 India
128 0.28 Botswana
129 0.28 Vanuatu
130 0.27 Cambodia
131 0.27 Ghana
132 0.26 Myanmar
133 0.25 Papua New Guinea
134 0.25 Bhutan
135 0.24 Lao Peoples Dem. Rep.
136 0.24 Comoros
137 0.23 Swaziland
138 0.23 Bangladesh
139 0.22 Sudan
140 0.21 Nepal
141 0.21 Cameroon
142 0.20 Pakistan
143 0.20 Togo
144 0.19 Congo
145 0.19 Lesotho
146 0.18 Uganda
147 0.18 Zimbabwe
148 0.17 Kenya
149 0.16 Yemen
150 0.16 Madagascar
151 0.15 Nigeria
152 0.15 Mauritania
153 0.14 Haiti
154 0.14 Djibouti
155 0.13 Gambia
156 0.12 Eritrea
157 0.12 Senegal
158 0.11 Timor Leste
159 0.11 Rwanda
160 0.10 Guinea
161 0.10 Benin
162 0.09 Tanzania
163 0.08 Cote d Ivoire
164 0.08 Zambia
165 0.07 Malawi
166 0.07 Angola
167 0.06 Chad
168 0.06 Congo Dem. Rep.
169 0.05 Central African Republic
170 0.05 Ethiopia
171 0.04 Mozambique
172 0.03 Guinea Bissau
173 0.03 Burundi
174 0.02 Mali
175 0.02 Burkina Faso
176 0.01 Niger
177 0.01 Sierra Leone
--
James Love, Director, CPTech, http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036, USA
Tel.: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176
Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva
1 Route des Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile +1.202.361.3040
james.love@cptech.org
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--
James Love, Director, CPTech, http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036, USA
Tel.: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176
Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva
1 Route des Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile +1.202.361.3040
james.love@cptech.org