[Wsis-pct] PCT Working Group Draft

[Georg C. F. Greve]

Hi all,

thanks for the stressful task you have taken upon yourselves, and many
thanks to Divina who took it upon her to provide a first draft.

This has been very helpful and I have just gone over the Access to
Knowledge and the Public Domain part and reworked it along the lines
of PCT Working Group activity in the past years.

This *should* be fine and I think you should take this language as is,
but of course I cannot impose this on the PCT Working Group, that has
not yet seen it.

@PCT WG: If you see a problem, please react immediately, and please
         try to react to major issues only, this is operating under
         extremely high time pressure.

         Explicit agreement is *very* welcome.

Regards,
Georg


P.S. Also, I have a question: Where does the quote "the importance of
proprietary software in the markets of the countries," come from?

This is horrible, I hadn't seen it before.

-----------------------------------------------

*** DRAFT ***

Access to Knowledge and the Public Domain

Each generation of humankind is depending upon its predecessors to
leave them with a livable, sustainable and stable environment. The
environment we were discussing throughout the WSIS is the public
domain of global knowledge. Like our planet with its natural
resources, that domain is the heritage of all humankind and the
reservoir from which new knowledge is created. Limited monopolies,
such as copyrights and patents were originally conceived as tools to
serve that public domain of global knowledge to the benefit of
humankind. Whenever society grants monopolies, a delicate balance must
be struck: careless monopolization will make the our heritage
unavailable to most people, to the detriment of all.

In the discussions we had throughout the past years, it became quite
clear that this balance has been upset by the interests of the
rights-holding industry as well as the digitalization. Humankind now
has the power to instantaneously share knowledge in real-time and
without loss. Civil Society has worked hard to defend that ability for
all of humankind. Free Software is an integral part of this ability:
Software is the cultural technique and most regulator of the digital
age. Access to it determines who may participate in a digital world.

While the first phase of the WSIS has recognised the importance of
Free Software along with the importance of knowledge sharing and
access to scientific and educational resources, it has not acted upon
that declaration and fallen behind it in the second phase. Free
Software is presented as a software model next to proprietary
software, to make a choice between them "in accordance with their
interests and with the needs to have reliable services and implement
effective programmes for their people."

The same paragraph reiterates "the importance of proprietary software
in the markets of the countries," ignoring that a proprietary software
market is always striving towards dependency and monopolization, both
of which are detrimental to economy and development as a
whole. Proprietary software is under exclusive control of and to the
benefit of its proprietor. Furthermore: proprietary software is
written in modern sweat-shops of the South for the benefit of Northern
economies, which are subsidized at the expense of Developing and
Least-Developed Countries in this way.

If we want future generations to understand the real basis of the
cultural technique of our digital age, freedom has to be preserved for
that cultural technique and all that it encompasses: Free Software,
open courseware and free educational as well as scientific resources
empower people to take their life into their own hands. Each
generation has a choice to make: schooling of the mind and creativity,
or product schooling? Most unfortunately, the WSIS has shown a
significant tendency towards the latter.

The two WSIS action lines on education and capacity building are not
really linked to ensure they work together in the same direction. This
risks duplication and scattering of finances. There is no indication
that these activities be made available to all by basing them on Free
Software, and no notion that the results of that work should then be
made available to the people that need it. On the contrary, the WSIS
documents in general emphasize business and private sector role, an
empty reference to "free flow of information, ideas, and knowledge;
that is not followed up by concrete action is not satisfactory.

Indigenous cultures provide for rules and regulations on
communicating, sharing, using and applying traditional knowledge. WSIS
has failed to offer solutions on how to stop the appropriation of
traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, and has not even
considered the problems that arise for people who cannot rightfully
access their traditional heritage lest they infringe some Northern
company's copyright or patent.

*** DRAFT ***

-- 
Georg C. F. Greve                                 <greve at fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe	                 (http://fsfeurope.org)
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom!     (http://www.fsfe.org)
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