The Green Party will vote tomorrow on proposed amendments to Intellectual Property Rights law....Matt Wootton, Green Party External Communications Co-ordinator commented:..."In the UK, excessive Intellectual Property Rights prevent access to and dissemination of vast areas of knowledge. Ninety-five percent of the works in copyright aren't available commercially in any form. Even worse, in the context of drug patents it means that, for instance, the majority of people with AIDS in developing countries die prematurely because they can't afford the drugs they need. Branded diet pills are more profitable, so that's what gets the funding. The proposed amendments aim to ensure that what rightfully belongs to the people is brought into the public domain." Proposed amendments would abolish Crown Copyright, a protection for most material originated by ministers and civil servants, and promote the Creative Commons, which offers a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors and artists. The Party would require Open Access publishing for publicly-funded academies.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/09/2005 09:29:00 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.
