[MCN-L] IP SIG: WIPO, James Boyle, and the Public Domain

[Amalyah Keshet [akeshet@imj.org.il]]

"The public domain is key to the promotion of innovation and should be fostered, but international intellectual property policies may hinder that process, said speakers at a side event to the last week's meeting of the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property.

Limitations and exceptions to copyright should be expanded and made mandatory, policymaking should be based on evidence and the public domain should be clearly defined and listed internationally, they said. The 30 April event was organised by the UN Conference on Trade and Development and the International Centre on Trade and Sustainable Development..."


"...James Boyle, a law professor at Duke University who defines the public domain as the raw material free for all to use without permission or a fee, said that the IP policy process was in need of a shift and presented two propositions to alleviate the problem of what he characterised as a "broken system". ...

"Presenting himself as a defender of the intellectual property system, who admitted to having "a warm relationship with [his] royalties checks," Boyle said that "the equivalence of an environmental impact study of our IP policy" should be conducted. "We should look at what we have done and see where it works," he said. When this has been done, he claimed, the results have been disturbing. In many cases, he said, "We are not making things better, we are actually making things worse."

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/05/08/panel-public-domain-fosters-innovation-more-limitations-exceptions-needed/