Template:© and you: A development agenda for WIPO?
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© and you: A development agenda for WIPO?
And why should you care?
Ever get the feeling that your country's copyright regime is getting more restrictive?This may well be due to a UN agency you have probably not heard of: The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva. Here,international treaties on copyright, patents and trademarks are drafted and decided on. Until now, this has usually happened in the interests ofbig rightsholders (read: the music and film business).In a move that can be called dramatic by UN standards, developing countries are making their voices heard. The Group of Friends of Development, led by Brasil, Argentina and India, are calling for a reorientation of WIPO's work. Instead of ever stricter enforcement of copyright and patent treaties, they are calling for more flexibilities.I will give an introduction on what WIPO is and what it does. Then I will present the basic positions and lines of conflict, involvingdifferent groups of countries as well as other NGOs such as http://www.fsfeurope.org Free Software Foundation Europe After explaining why this matter is important for all of us, I'm looking forward to an interesting discussion.
