A2K Campaigning

From AsiaCommons

Topic:

Initiator:

Lim Swee Tat

Participants:

• Indah Suksmaningsih
• Miran Mun
• Yongkyung Chung
• Susheela Nair
• T Rama Devi
• T K Govindah
• JSRA Prasad
• Ng Yuen
• Norbert Klein
• Lim Swee Tat
• Frederick Aye
• Mutunda Iulonga

Highlights of the Discussion

• Copyright in itself is generally acceptable. However it is crucial to understand and disseminate the negative consequences of having "inappropriate copyright regimes".

• The issues on A2K is spread across different levels. It was suggested that the information needs of a country would depend on the stages of development of a particular country. For example, Singapore focuses on access to knowledge based on A2K as it is presently understood, while India might concentrate more on spreading education. It was generally agreed that knowledge should be accessible whenever required. For example, if a person wanted to learn how to build cars, such information (know-how)should be readily accessible.

Where Do We Want to Go From Here

• There is a need to undertake studies on copyright laws at the national level and to determine how these laws impede access to knowledge.

• Campaigns to regularize standards of copyright across the world.

• There is a need to strike a balance between innovation and access to knowledge. Creators should be compensated for their creation (limited monopoly over their works). However, such monopoly should not impede access to knowledge.

• Copyright laws must not be too restrictive. All limitations and exceptions provided for under the international copyright instruments should be utilised.

• The group felt that in order to assist developing countries draft their copyright laws, a model law on copyright is needed. All participants in the group requested for Consumers International to develop a model law as part of its social responsibility to consumers.

Transcript

*Note: due to the hurried nature of the transcript, I was unable to associate comments with names. If you took part in this discussion, please edit and add the names you know of.

[We were going around the circle discussing the issue of A2K, or Access to Knowledge, and India mentioned that making education (ex: computers) more accessible is still a rather important factor in parts of the world.]

Singapore: some nations need help in education. a UN agenda to promote IT for developing countries began five to ten years ago; Skingapore etc have benefited. That is where A2K comes in. we are already past the stage of needing education...

India: but it is an issue in Indonesia and so on

Singapore: yes but can we go back to the original parts of education? if IT was the issue we should go to [education] but now we are looking at A2K, talk of something else. looking at it all together is too wide ranging. so if we focus on all the way back to education - it is definately more important - but we can't go on to speak of A2K. where do we want to focus on now?

Singapore: but then the way it was introduced was considering following aspects of - say car engineering how does a country learn to engineer a car? Korea has benefited but would this benefit India? this is knowledge; nuclear power tech, also an example, India has it Singapore doesn't but will Singapore benefit from those technologies. access to that kind of knowledge. education IS important

?: education is key; lifelong.

[Then Zambia etc join; they went to room 2, because they didn't know where to go. this is access to knowledge! It is agreed that we give a short summary.]

Cambodia: I wanted to come join the discussion not because of A2K but because of campaign for it. and when I say this I think of the Cambodian situation. there are two different aspects. first: one is access to government information - for example the budget is implemented very differently and it is difficult to find out why. this kind of access to information public should have might be an issue for a campaign. how to organize campaigns? this is interesting. this info exists somewhere. control of access and how to move it. second: lots of info is available but how is it chosen to be accessed specifically? Saturday morning before coming here I was invited by a student organization to be part of a committee for a national coordinator and asked them where do you get information news or radio or television and was shocked to hear: mainly from television. and he sees american and chinese movies and information? he completely got it wrong and he's applying for the position of a national coordinator for a student movement. there is information and I asked about news but he liked action movies. This represents a very vast majority of people. how do we bring this to the campaign? information news orientation soforth... how to campaign from this not so useful access into useful.

India: what is procedure to campaign?

Singapore: But first here is the summary. according to Indah Indonesia has twwenty five provinces and governors and 20% of the budget is supposed to be reserved for education and campaigns. in Korea A2K issues are forced by US regimes. consumer issues are not linked. They are not sure how to address this problem yet. Malaysia did an 11 country study and two specific published ones Thai and Indonesia CI study. copyright. in India, computer literacy; how to identify resources, allocate. focus on A2K. how to promote this. India internet and infrastructure development howto's. assist in A2K. all villages should get info and access to knowledge. also perhaps we need to know percentages of those who need assistance. India also classification of knowledge. encourage people to share knowledge. information is very slow. colalborative efforts and campaign for OSS in A2K. Singapore said that education is on UN agenda. (refer to comment above) concerning Cambodia, how to put it into campaign, and government directions.

Cambodia: fundamental question. how do people choose what to access? there is a lot of access to information and is it possible to raise social consciousness. what kind of...

Korea: that will be quite different from what information they need. if they need knowledge on some style of life then rely on movies to get information... but. what kind of information they need is important. so. maybe that is personal confusion.

India: how to start is first help classify resources available on the internet. and to collect resources relating to my field, to see from which category I can use particular information. this can connect to train particular groups to access info. special interest vs. collecting. women employment for example. government.... it is difficult to reach each individual. producer himself does campaign or make product, this is the commercial model. so we select commercial models with slight modification. to access A2K.

example Singapore (Swee Tat) gave: simple example car engineering setting up necessary equipments necessary set up for cars. very niche knowledge but knowledge nonetheless. how do you get access to such knowledge? in order to benefit all humankind someone should access knowledge. this knowledge is just restricted currently because of all kinds of regimes. if you do want a2k someone in any country must be able to say he is interested and then read information.

Zambia: various comments... based on what has been said. my understanding is that this access to essential knowledge is restricted by certain regulations and for me maybe that is where the campaign is. the knowledge information must be freed and we must address fundamentals. so in that case in all countries the issue of what we are addressing - the copyright laws - are fundamental because without that if we provide people with computers and necessary tools to access knowledge knowledge is not appropriated by a few.

Singapore: so question lies in how we create campaigns... how these info holders are willing to give up knowledge.

Ghana: laws strictly restricting... let's get the laws lax. government is complicated in politics. national context.

Korea: it's not only national governmental issues. in Korea the government wanted to relax IP regulations... US during negotiation for FTA pushed more and more so I think it's not only issue for national level gov but also international pressure from government. so we can discuss both national what can we do and international level what can we discuss about to solve problem

Singapore: what she raises is a valid point. single country fighting versus single entities: better for collective efforts. if multiple countries' consumer groups pressure well.... whichever party is imposing ... if you come in with a single voice, it is difficult. mainstream is going to dismiss this as being too far left versus if you come in as collective voice.

Indonesia: bigger entities.... go to Japan and quarrels... remember that try to if you go international you should be very tight together or big one try to go... in reality people say i am bigger than you!

Singapore: government information...A2K.

India: the Indian government is coming forward to open information - for example land holdings, birth death, everything automatized, passports and so on. National Information Center. so you can get info that's the proposal, again another issue now is that the right to information act has been implemented. each governor is accountable to provide access to knowledge to common man. third component here. A2K how to campaign, so it is mandatory for government information to be released to public. otherwise it is an offense. governmental officers are punished if information is not given.

Zambia: my country situation is very difficult, but from asian commons point of view this is an original initiative. specific proposal was that maybe we should look at the area of campaign from global point of view. lots of trade is affected by trade agreements, so A2K visavis copyright laws must be made a high profile issue in agreements where civil societies are usually very optimal. maybe that is where we start.

Korea: access to knowledge from government information, we can handle that kind of national law but copyright and ip law then it is connected to free trade agreement that he mentioned so we must discuss how we can handle international and national pressure. strengthen against ipr issue.

Singapore: I think of two questions. one. do you think there should be copyrights? ultimately copyright regimes are wrong. since we are here saying we need change. copyright is a barrier and problem to access to knowledge. so are we agreeing that copyright is a reasonable tool in the first place?

Cambodia: It is reasonable to make known what is copyright law in a given situation, what is the consequences then. make that known. it is very often restricting...

Malaysia: the study pointed out problems with each copyright law. by lobbying for law reforms. But the duration, the balance is important.

India: intellectual property.

Singapore: so to pinpoint exactly, what we want to tear down now are current too restrictive regimes.

Cambodia: laws from countries are very different. should be regularized. transparented. there is a variation of copyright laws in the world - limitations and exceptions should dissolve. they should be commonized throughout the world.

?: but then that is complicated.... bilateral agreements

Malaysia?: at least for books and so on

Zambia: two major striking things. one needs to raise awareness of copyright laws for policymakers because some countries have turned themselves into unnecessary complications. innocent well-meaning minds could put countries at difficulty because of lack of knowloedge

Malaysia: for example there is provision in WIPO about public lending so libraries cannot lend books without copyright owners approval. This is the extent of the blind adoption of provisions. libraries risk not being able to lend out books. very sad.

Indonesia: foreign helpers come in and say they help

Malaysia: I attended a WIPO meeting in geneva and WIPO took offense because one whole section said that WIPO was misadvising. and major media releases happened so I approached the copyright laws division and they said they had a new draft, draft 3. so I asked if it was out yet because on their homepage they only have drafts 1 and 2 but they said they are still in the process of making it. so it is not in effect yet!

Ghana?: developing countries rely on foreign assistance. why does CI not make a draft law of its own

Malaysia: but situation is different for each country so that is what CI is doing, just guidance.

Korea: this kind of conference we had two days ago. workshop.

Singapore: if you want to suggest a change in law dont give them a problem give them the solution. these people are paid to find problems. we give them an action plan and that makes them act.

?: it is for national organizations to draft effective laws, look at WIPO, but CI can't put up a draft law applying across the border.

Zambia: actually the suggestion [for CI to put up a draft law] is appealing because normally these countries influenced by technical support depend on who has drafted the laws. so my suggestion is that if the say WIPO is able to hire consultants to help Zambia to draft its copyright laws, CI must also be able to draft model law that will sort of challenge as a social responsibility. to look at issues of social interest so that this model law is also... for example there are many model laws in consumer protection and so on. it's something to think about!