FYI
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Gurstein <mgurst@vcn.bc.ca>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: random-bits-admin@venice.essential.org
> On Behalf Of James Love
> Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 10:28 AM
> To: random-bits@venice.essential.org; ip@tacd.org
> Subject: [Random-bits] USPTO, Microsoft seek to kill WIPO meeting on
> open collaborative models to develop public goods
>
>
> August 19, 2003. Technology Daily PM Edition
>
> --
> Intellectual Property
> Global Group's Shift On 'Open Source' Meeting Spurs Stir
> by William New
>
> A request for a meeting on open development issues has plunged the
> Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) into a
> Washington political battle, causing it to shift its position on the
> issue.
>
> At issue is whether WIPO should hold a meeting next year on "open and
> collaborative projects" such as "open source" software, which allows
> users to view and modify underlying code.
>
> The meeting was proposed in a July 7 letter sent to WIPO Director
> General Kamil Idris by 68 distinguished scientists, academics,
> technologists, open-source advocates, consumer advocates, librarians,
> industry representatives and economists worldwide.
>
> Although the letter cited a broad range of open collaborative projects
> such as the World Wide Web and the Human Genome Project, the fight has
> focused on open-source software and on one signer of the letter -- James
>
> Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology, who has actively
> pushed for the meeting.
>
> WIPO's initial response to the idea was so favorable that proponents
> began planning for a meeting. After receiving the letter, Francis Gurry,
>
> WIPO's assistant director and legal counsel, e-mailed a statement to a
> Nature magazine reporter calling such open development models "a very
> important and interesting development."
>
> "The director general of WIPO looks forward with enthusiasm to taking up
>
> the invitation to organize a conference to explore the scope and
> application of these models as vehicles for encouraging innovation," he
> wrote.
>
> But a few weeks later, WIPO backed off the idea. Gurry said he and other
>
> WIPO officials received "many calls" from consumer groups, trade
> associations, professional associations and representatives from
> governments.
>
> "What happened in the intervening weeks is that a request for an open
> discussion on a range of 'projects' became transformed into an
> increasingly domestically, as opposed to internationally, oriented,
> polarized political and trade debate about one only of those 'projects',
>
> namely open-source software," Gurry told National Journal's Technology
> Daily on Tuesday. "In those circumstances, the possibility of conducting
>
> a policy discussion on intellectual property of the sort that might be
> appropriate for an international organization devoted to intellectual
> property became increasingly remote."
>
> U.S. government officials have argued that WIPO is an inappropriate
> place for such a meeting.
>
> One developing country representative to WIPO on Monday expressed
> disappointment at hearing that the meeting is in doubt, and Love and
> representatives from the Computer and Communications Industry
> Association (CCIA) were furious to learn of the shift. Love last week
> called the decision a "temporary setback," and vowed, "We're going to
> make this happen." But for meeting opponents, he said, it would be "as
> if you made an atheist pope for the day."
>
> CCIA President Ed Black said on Tuesday: "Does this indicate that WIPO
> is abdicating authority and responsibility for these issues, including
> open source for the future? If so, we will all live by that, but then so
>
> must they. They should step up the plate or step aside. ... It is
> inexplicable that they would shut the door on what are clearly important
>
> issues."
>
>
> Intellectual Property
> U.S. Official Opposes 'Open Source' Talks At WIPO
> by William New
>
> An international intellectual property body is not the place for
> discussions about "open source" software, which allows users to view and
>
> modify the underlying code, because it falls outside of the
> organization's mission, a senior U.S. official argued on Monday.
> Reviewing the original mission of the World Intellectual Property
> Organization (WIPO), said Lois Boland, the U.S. Patent and Trademark
> Office (PTO) acting director of international relations, it is "clearly
> limited to the protection of intellectual property. To have a meeting
> whose primary objective is to waive or remove those protections seems to
>
> go against the mission."
>
> Boland was referring to a July request by a group of scientists,
> academics, open-source advocates and others for a meeting at WIPO on
> "open and collaborative projects," including open-source software. The
> WIPO secretariat initially replied favorably to the idea.
> In a telephone interview, Boland gave several reasons why the
> Geneva-based WIPO should not hold the meeting, including a tight budget
> and late scheduling. She also said WIPO's agenda should be driven by
> member nations, and the idea came from outside the organization.
> Officials from the 179 WIPO nations will convene in late September to
> decide their agenda for the next two years; the agenda has been in the
> works for months and does not include open-development issues. "It would
>
> have been somewhat unusual for such a meeting to materialize out of
> nothing," Boland said.
>
> In the past six months, WIPO has had to cancel several meetings on
> topics directly relevant to the organization due to budgetary issues,
> she said, adding that with those problems, the organization should not
> "go out on a limb and express receptivity" to an open-development
> meeting. U.S. government officials have had "informal" communications
> with WIPO,
>
> Boland said. A WIPO official said that since receiving a wide range of
> communications, WIPO has stepped back from the idea of a meeting but has
>
> not fully rejected the possibility of addressing the topic.
>
> The U.S. government has an interagency process for developing formal
> positions at WIPO. A meeting that included officials from PTO and the
> Copyright Office was held last Thursday at the State Department. The
> Commerce Department and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative are part
>
> of the interagency process, too.
>
> Boland said the United States "would certainly have some rather
> bureaucratic objections" to WIPO considering a policy on open-source
> software. "There are technical and legalistic arguments to that."
> Open-source software is not protected under copyright law but only
> contract law, which is not the domain of WIPO, she said. That point has
> been heavily disputed by copyright experts.
>
> Boland suggested that the U.S. government supports open-source growth as
>
> a development tool and she proposed it for consideration by a U.N. body
> focused on development.
>
> She also reprimanded WIPO officials for publicly giving the impression
> that the body might consider open-source issues. "We think people
> working within the organization need to be better stewards of
> interactions" with nonprofit groups and other non-member organizations,
> she said.
>
> --
> James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
> http://www.cptech.org, mailto:james.love@cptech.org tel.
> +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040
>
>
>
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