137 linhas
5.3 KiB
HTML
137 linhas
5.3 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
|
|
|
|
<html>
|
|
<version>1</version>
|
|
<author id="greve"/>
|
|
<date>
|
|
<original content="2005-09-30"/>
|
|
</date>
|
|
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>FSF Europe - Statement of the Free Software Foundations</title>
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body>
|
|
|
|
<p id="category">
|
|
<a href="/activities/policy.html">WIPO</a>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<h1>Statement of the Free Software Foundations towards the 2005 WIPO general assemblies</h1>
|
|
<h2 align="center">Free Software Foundation Europe</h2>
|
|
<h2 align="center">Free Software Foundation Latin America</h2>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!--<p id="introduction"> Summary: </p>-->
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Mr. Chairman,</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>on behalf of the Free Software Foundations Europe and Latin
|
|
America, let me express my congratulations to you and your colleagues
|
|
on your chairing this historic general assembly. The Free Software
|
|
Foundations are globally active centres of expertise acting in a
|
|
network of sister organisations based in India, Latin America, Europe
|
|
and the United States of America.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Our area of expertise are the issues raised by a digitised society and
|
|
economy, questions which are addressed effectively by Free Software;
|
|
as defined by the freedom of unlimited use for any purpose, the
|
|
freedom to study, the freedom to modify and the freedom to
|
|
distribute.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Through the Free Software Foundation Europe the FSFs participated in
|
|
all sessions of the Development Agenda IIM process and also followed
|
|
the broadcasting treaty negotiations with great interest. Our comments
|
|
relate to both activities.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Mr Chairman,</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>much has been said and written about the knowledge society that
|
|
humankind is about to enter. Looking at the regulatory initiatives,
|
|
one stumbles upon a paradox: While society is getting ready to unleash
|
|
human creativity as it has never done before, regulatory proposals
|
|
seek to create new barriers.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The Broadcasting Treaty is a good example of such a new barrier for
|
|
which the potential benefits and costs seem unequally matched in
|
|
disfavor of humankind.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The result of ignoring the wisdom of approaching crucial legal
|
|
regulation can be seen in another area: software patents have been
|
|
introduced without evaluation, and according to the findings of
|
|
several renowned institutions we now have to realise that they are
|
|
harmful to competition and stifle innovation. For your information:
|
|
these institutions include Massachussetts Institute of Technology
|
|
(MIT), the Boston University School of Law, Price Waterhouse Coopers,
|
|
US Federal Trade Commission and Deutsche Bank Research.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The situation has degenerated to the point that a vice president of
|
|
IBM, Mr Wladawsky-Berger, likened software patents to weapons of mass
|
|
destruction in a New York Times interview.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Similar experiences seem possible with the Broadcasting Treaty.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Erecting additional barriers and raising all barriers by introduction
|
|
of criminal sanctions against commercial infringement at a time when
|
|
humankind is still struggling to fully understand the implications of
|
|
the digital age would be hasty and unwise.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Mr. Chairman,</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>the traditional toolset of WIPO revolves centrally around limited
|
|
monopolies, such as Copyrights, Patents or Trademarks. These have
|
|
often been treated on the basis that more is always better, an
|
|
approach that ignores both Liebigs law of the minimum as well as
|
|
Shelfords law of tolerance: Not only will increasing the dose of the
|
|
non-limiting factor have no positive effect, an overdose can be toxic.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Finding the proper balance between too little and too much is the
|
|
challenge that lies before any regulation. Given the fundamental
|
|
impact of all regulations made on WIPO level, wisdom would suggest a
|
|
conservative approach:</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>New regulations should only be introduced if scientific evidence and
|
|
evidence from a public review period conclusively show it to have a
|
|
positive effect.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Old regulations should be reviewed periodically as to whether they are
|
|
still up to the needs of the time, or whether they require adjustment.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>In the light of the wisdom of Liebig and Shelford, agreeing to the
|
|
creation of a WIPO Research and Evaluation Office (WERO) would seem
|
|
trivial, so would the search for alternative means of fostering
|
|
creativity.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>As the secretariat and member states correctly pointed out repeatedly
|
|
in the past: WIPO exists to promote creativity. At the time of its
|
|
inception, most alternative means of fostering creativity were not yet
|
|
concieved, in particular those related to digitalisation. Now that
|
|
they exist, what would seem more natural for WIPO than exploring them?</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The discussions around the Development Agenda have proven to be most
|
|
difficult, also because of procedural discussions, which indeed took
|
|
the majority of the time spent in the IIM process. After these had
|
|
been largely resolved, substantive discussion took place, cut short by
|
|
the need to come to a formal outcome that could be presented to this
|
|
general assembly.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Not continuing what was begun, or changing from a horse to a mule
|
|
midstream, as the honored Indian delegate so eloquently put it, would
|
|
be wasting the time and effort spent on this initiative by all sides,
|
|
North and South. For this reason we strongly support the notion of
|
|
letting the IIM process finish what it began.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Mr Chairman,</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Thank you for your attention.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
|
|
</html>
|
|
<!--
|
|
Local Variables: ***
|
|
mode: xml ***
|
|
End: ***
|
|
-->
|