Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property

by Krikorian, Gaalle

• ISBN13: 9781890951962
• ISBN10: 189095196X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-10-22
• Publisher: Zone Books

Summary

At the end of the twentieth century, intellectual property rights collided with everyday life. Expansive copyright laws and digital rights management technologies sought to shut down new forms of copying and remixing made possible by the Internet. International laws expanding patent rights threatened the lives of millions of people around the world living with HIV/AIDS by limiting their access to cheap generic medicines. For decades, governments have tightened the grip of intellectual property law at the bidding of information industries; but recently, groups have emerged around the world to challenge this wave of enclosure with a new counter-politics of "access to knowledge" or "A2K." They include software programmers who took to the streets to defeat software patents in Europe, AIDS activists who forced multinational pharmaceutical companies to permit copies of their medicines to be sold in poor countries, subsistence farmers defending their rights to food security or access to agricultural biotechnology, and college students who created a new "free culture" movement to defend the digital commons. Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Propertymaps this emerging field of activism as a series of historical moments, strategies, and concepts. It gathers some of the most important thinkers and advocates in the field to make the stakes and strategies at play in this new domain visible and the terms of intellectual property law intelligible in their political implications around the world. A Creative Commons edition of this work will be freely available online. Contributors:Ahmed Abdelatif, Philippe Aigrain, Jeffrey Atteberry, Yochai Benkler, Yann Moulier Boutaing, Carlos Correa, Laura DeNardis, Sarah Deutsch, Peter Drahos, Hala Essalmawi, Rick Falkvinge, Sean Flynn, Vera Franz, Spring Gombe, Anil Gupta, Ellen 't Hoen, Charles Igwe, Eddan Katz, Kannikar Kijtiwatchakul, Gaelle Krikorian, Lawrence Liang, Jiraporn Limpananont, James Love, Leena Menghaney, Viviana Munoz, Sisule F. Musungu, HeeSeob Nam, Chan Park, Eloan Pinheiro dos Santos, Achal Prabhala, Onno Purbo, Manon Ress, Caroline Rossini, Susan Sell, Sangeeta Shashikant, Roberto Verzola, Jo Walsh

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 9
Introduction
Access to Knowledge: A Conceptual Genealogy	p. 17
Access to Knowledge as a Field of Activism	p. 57
The Emergence of the Politics of A2K
The Emergence of the A2K Movement: Reminiscences and Reflections of a Developing-Country Delegate	p. 99
The Revised Drug Strategy: Access to Essential Medicines, Intellectual Property, and the World Health Organization	p. 127
The Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health: An Impetus for Access to Medicines	p. 141
An Uncertain Victory: The 2005 Rejection of Software Patents by the European Parliament	p. 161
A2K at WIPO: The Development Agenda and the Debate on the Proposed Broadcasting Treaty	p. 175
The Conceptual Terrain of A2K
"IP World"-Made by TNC Inc.	p. 197
The Idea of Access to Knowledge and the Information Commons: Long-Term Trends and Basic Elements	p. 217
Access to Knowledge: The Case of Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge	p. 237
Undermining Abundance: Counterproductive Uses of Technology and Law in Nature, Agriculture, and the Information Sector	p. 253
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Book	p. 277
Free-Trade Agreements and Neoliberalism: How to Derail the Political Rationales that Impose Strong Intellectual Property Protection	p. 293
Information/Knowledge in the Global Society of Control: A2K Theory and the Postcolonial Commons	p. 329
Beyond Representation: The Figure of the Pirate	p. 353
Virtual Roundtable on A2K Politics	p. 377
Strategies and Tactics of A2K
A Comparison of A2K Movements: From Medicines to Farmers	p. 391
TRIPS Flexibilities: The Scope of Patentability and Oppositions of Patents in India	p. 415
TRIPS Flexibilities in Thailand: Between Law and Politics	p. 435
Using Competition Law to Promote Access to Knowledge	p. 451
Open-Access Publishing: From Principles to Practice	p. 475
The Global Politics of Interoperability	p. 497
Back to Balance: Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright	p. 517
New Medicines and Vaccines: Access, Incentives to Investment, and Freedom to Innovate	p. 531
Virtual Roundtable on A2K Strategies: Interventions and Dilemmas	p. 547
Interview with Yann Moulier Boutang	p. 575
Nollywood: How it Works-A Conversation with Charles Igwe	p. 595
Epilogue: A2K in the Future-Visions and Scenarios
A Copyright Thriller Versus a Vision of a Digital Renaissance	p. 607
Social Mutations in the Future	p. 613
The Future of Intellectual Property and Access to Medicine	p. 621
Options and Alternatives to Current Copyright Regimes and Practices	p. 627
The Golden Touch and the Miracle of the Loaves	p. 633
Contributors	p. 637
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.