0.1 The international framework  (Page 10/12)

Wipo development agenda

The WTO has entered into an agreement with  WIPO  to provide advice to developing countries on the implementation of TRIPS. Some in developing countries consider the advice provided by WIPO to be too weighted in favor of the interests of copyright holders. In 2004, Brazil and Argentina submitted to the  WIPO General Assembly  a proposal for a “development agenda.”  The proposal  called on WIPO to pay greater attention to the impact of intellectual property protection on economic and social development, the need to safeguard flexibilities designed to protect the public interest, and the importance of promoting “development oriented” technical cooperation and assistance. Additional proposals in support of a WIPO Development Agenda were submitted by other member countries and organizations, such as Chile, the Group of Friends of Development, and the Africa Group.

This initiative has made considerable progress. The 2004 WIPO General Assembly agreed to hold a series of intergovernmental meetings to examine the proposals for a development agenda. Substantive reform proposals to establish a development agenda for WIPO passed during the 2007 WIPO General Assembly. The  current WIPO Development Agenda  contains 45 recommendations for the General Assembly to pursue.

Organizations representing librarians have had a significant voice in the negotiations of the WIPO Development Agenda. Joint statements of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA), and Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL) are available  here .

The proposed access to knowledge (a2k) treaty

The Argentina-Brazil proposal for a development agenda prompted a debate on whether WIPO should work to ensure effective technology transfer from developed to developing countries. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academics, and researchers shared the concerns expressed by developing countries that aspects of the copyright system were impeding innovation and creating disadvantages for developing countries. This reaction to WIPO’s current policies took the form of a movement calling for equality among citizens from developed and developing countries as regards access to knowledge; it has come to be known as the “access to knowledge” or  “ A2K ” movement. Librarians’ organizations, such as eIFL, were pioneers in the advocacy of a “right to knowledge” and have called upon WIPO to establish minimum exceptions and limitations to copyright protection.

One outgrowth of the movement has been a  proposal for a United Nations treaty . The proposed treaty intends to “protect and enhance access to knowledge, and to facilitate the transfer of technology to developing countries.” It includes a list of circumstances under which copyright holders may not prevent the free use of their content, including:

• The use of works for purposes of library or archival preservation, or to migrate content to a new format.
• The efforts of libraries, archivists, or educational institutions to make copies of works that are not currently the subject of commercial exploitation, for purposes of preservation, education, or research.
• The use of excerpts, selections, and quotations from copyrighted works for purposes of explanation and illustration in connection with not-for-profit teaching and scholarship.
• The use of copyrighted works by educational institutions as primary instructional materials, if those materials are not made readily available by copyright holders at reasonable prices.