Demand clarity, reform, say blind enforcement risks the delicate balance between copyright holders and users, and may also “trample upon principles that are pillars of fundamental human rights.” Wants developing countries to have increased say as major copyright holder nations advance their agenda.
Developing countries are starting to realize they must be proactive in developing intellectual property enforcement regimes within the World Intellectual Property Organization or they risk being overpowered by major rights-holding counties like the US which are currently negotiating a separate Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) outside the WIPO system.
“For the first time developing countries put forth the agenda,” said Ali Asad Gilani, first secretary of Pakistan’s delegation.
Pakistan and Brazil each submitted proposals to the enforcement committee for consideration.
Pakistan expressed its skepticism of piracy and counterfeiting statistics in general, noting that they are “generally with little transparency regarding the raw data and the methodology used to derive those figures.” Thus, the numbers are viewed as self-serving components of aggressive economic interests. Without credible and impartial figures it says there is no way countries can even begin to build a higher standard of enforcement.
High costs of copyrighted works contribute to the problem as well, creating huge profit margins between the costs of the original and pirated version.
“Quite clearly, business models are not adequately addressing the pricing-cost issues involved in selling products,” it says. “Unreasonably, higher costs along with barriers to access, do provide some justification to the consumers to use counterfeit and pirated goods.”
For developing countries with limited financial resources and infrastructure it says trying to divert resources from developmental and even other law enforcement requirements is often “difficult to justify.”
And it criticizes developing countries for what it calls “forum shopping,” that is looking for other avenues like the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to achieve their agenda outside the WIPO.
It says the real solution to the problem is realizing that each country has a different economic reality and that pricing should be adjusted accordingly.
Brazil takes to task the “one size fits all” approach to piracy, noting that copyright violations do not take place in a vacuum, they are not “disconnected from concrete political and social variables.”
It recommends strategies that are proportionally tailored to the specific social and technological realities of each developing country.
More importantly, it says “one size fits all” is a repressive approach that risks the delicate balance between copyright holders and users.
“It could trample upon principles that are pillars of fundamental civil rights, such as the right to privacy, presumption of innocence, due process of law, proportionality between offenses and sentences, protection of third party interests, participation in the information society,” it adds.
The last part about “participation” is surely a stab at some country’s proposals to disconnect file-sharers from the Internet.
The reality of it all is that copyright holders have been slow to realize that people in some countries just cant afford to buy their products legally. With more than half the world’s population living on less than $2.50 per day there’s a huge incentive to pirate and sell works most could otherwise not afford.
Copyright holders also need to stop trotting out propped up statistics that make the problem seem worse than it actually is. Everybody involved needs to be honest about the situation of they are to be partners in solving it.
Stay tuned.
Maybe they'd be better off making their own culture instead of pirating Mickey Mouse and Terminator. They just like the tax money the companies that mass copy DVD's and make T-shirts bring in. Follow rthe money to the truth.
This isn't just about piracy in the most basic form. They are covering things like restrictions due to the limited nature of variations in what one can create. Since copyright laws have become so broad in what they protect, the scope of what one can create has shrunk significantly. Not only that but when small markets compete with multibillion dollar markets, its next to impossible for these industries to grow in underdeveloped economies. It also refers to access to knowledge from books, patents that stiffle advancement, etc. But of course you just oversimplify the argument so it fits your world view.
It's not simple but you're painting an innacurate picture to justify your point. The business about the scope of what one can create is pretty baseless… how so? In the sense that I can't plagiarize or sample whole songs or movies? So what? I really can't see your point.
Patents don't stifle advancement, they encourage people to share their information and make it into useful inventions, which they do becuase they know they can profit. It really is that simple. Patents don't last very long, either.
As for industries developing, there is no industry if there is no product. Anyway, both Pakistan and Brazil have a better local music business than big parts of the US, so you're way off base.
“The business about the scope of what one can create is pretty baseless… how so?”
Didn’t you read?: “Since copyright laws have become so broad in what they protect, …”
You can’t even distinguish between plagiarizing an idea and incidentally creating something similar.
“Patents don’t stifle advancement, they encourage people to share their information and make it into useful inventions, which they do becuase they know they can profit.”
No, patents prevent anybody else from even using that information, so advancement depends on the patent owner, and thus if the owner doesn’t continue the advancement of the idea, then the advancement is stifled.
“As for industries developing, there is no industry if there is no product.”
Except there could be no industry even if there is a product. Industry development does not only involve product lines.
“… Pakistan and Brazil have a better local music business than big parts of the US …”
“Better” is a relative term that says nothing about the actual success of the business in those places. It is doubtful that you’re not pulling this from that pea-brain of yours.
This is about far more than entertainment intellectual property. It covers drug patents, and other intellectual property that would help them advance their organizations. They also support what I've been saying for a while now that copyright hampers the little guys ability to release content and compete. Either way, maybe Disney would like to pay the people they ripped off their stories from, oh wait they became public when the laws made sense, and copyright had a time limit within ones lifetime.
You mean folk tales? If there had been copyright at the time, the common people who made them up may have been able to make their life better, and their name would still be known. But only rich people get recognized in a world without copyright.
"copyright hampers the little guys ability to release content and compete"
How does it hanper anyones ability to release content? It's hard to get good promotion and distribution but something that's public domain (no exclusivity) is NOT going to get the investment.
Canadian television shows struggle to compete with American shows due to their larger market base. Since the industries can't develop under that competition with the limited funds that economy can never be built. The same can easily apply to developing nations. They struggle to compete with big budget corporations, copyright laws further limit what they can and can't produce, and also increases the cost of production.
No, they can't make 'spiderman 5 meets batman' but in the end if they want to maintain their culture in the face of 'globalization' then they are better off creating their own culture.
You missed this point: Copyright laws complicate the economics of production. That has little relevance with maintaining a culture.
“If there had been copyright at the time, …”
We don’t need you to speculate about the past again.
“But only rich people get recognized in a world without copyright.”
What a naive statement. It’s obvious you are jealous of rich people, since you are a money freak.
“How does it hanper anyones ability to release content?”
Since the time when it served to prevent unauthorized releasing, it has mutated to prevent releasing of even slightly similar content.
Your last sentence is not even relevant or grammatically correct . There’s a difference between getting the release to sell and actually putting the stuff out in the first place.
Most developing countries I hear don’t give a shiz what Western porduced media gets pirated.. They only care about their localized content which keeps their local industries surviving.. The RIAA\MPAA dont give two cahoots about these developing countries or the content that comes out of them (mainly none that the riaa\mpaa have ever liscensed).. They only concern the MPAA\RIAA have is that they are still able to shoot films etc in other countries for as little cost as possible..
Brazil also criticizes the fact that western companies swoop in and collect their genetic resources, ie from plants and animals in the amazon, and then patent it, preventing them from benefiting from products created from resources in their own country!
I'm from Brazil and didn't even know the guys "up there" are looking into the copyrights and privacy subject.
Good to say they are giving it a thought :]
try taking a look at the work done by academics at Brazil's FGV School of Law – Rio and their Center for Technology and Society within the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Take a look at their A2K program: http//:http://www.a2kbrasil.org.br