The Friends of Development proposal also covers a number of additional development issues, of which a Treaty on Access to Knowledge and Technology (A2K). The proposed A2K Treaty aims to respond to concerns that current trends in IP laws, particularly in relation to copyright, patents and databases, are limiting access to knowledge for public goods and thereby constraining innovation. Its objectives include increasing technology transfer to developing countries and promoting access by developing countries to the results of publicly funded research that might aid development. The principle of such a treaty is supported by the African Group proposal. The Chilean proposal does not make explicit mention of the A2K Treaty, but supports the idea of stronger protection for the public domain, in order to increase the availability and dissemination of knowledge.
A number of human rights rules and mechanisms promote these objectives and could be harnessed as a supporting framework for the drafting of such a treaty. For example, human rights law calls for measures that respect, protect and fulfil the right to education, the right to seek, receive and impart information which is part of the right to freedom of expression, and the right to the enjoyment of the benefits of scientific progress and its applications. These human rights all have access to information as a core element. Therefore, they can be supportive of a treaty aimed at ensuring that IP rules and policies do not stifle access to public goods such as educational materials, public libraries, archives, commons databases, public broadcasts or publicly funded scientific research.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/21/2006 10:36:00 AM.
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.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
