More on the WIPO meeting....Five major US library groups have written open letters to WIPO and the USPTO protesting the cancellation of the meeting and the role of the USPTO in the decision.
Excerpt from the letter to WIPO: "We write to express our
surprise and dismay at recent press reports that the World Intellectual Property Organization may not take up an important recent proposal to hold a conference on open and collaborative models for development of public goods. The proposal was made in a letter to you dated July 7, 2003, signed by several dozen distinguished scientists, academics, technologists, open-source advocates, consumer advocates, librarians, industry representatives and economists worldwide. We urge WIPO to hold such a conference in 2004 as proposed. The application of open and collaborative models raises important intellectual property issues for the international community that WIPO should be addressing. These models are experiments in creative use of intellectual property law to achieve socially responsible and productive ends."
Excerpt from the letter to the USPTO: "We are deeply distressed by reports that the PTO, instead [of supporting the idea], expressly reprimanded WIPO, calling for the organization to improve its stewardship of interactions with nonprofit groups and other non-member organizations. The United States has long acted as a leading supporter of public participation at the international level. We highly value this commitment and applaud the efforts the United States has made to enable civil society to monitor, inform and participate in the activities of numerous international bodies. We trust that any statements the PTO may have made were misconstrued, and urge the PTO to clarify and reaffirm its commitment to active public participation at WIPO and to WIPO’s efforts to seek and benefit from the input of civil society." (The letter says that the meeting would have discussed open access to "academic research in the developing world" but in fact the open access discussion would have been limited to the developing world.)
The letters are signed by the directors of the American Association of Law Libraries, the American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, Medical Library Association, and Special Libraries Association.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/05/2003 05:15:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
