Don’t mention the IMR war!
Foreign Policy has an interview with Larry Lessig about the rift between the EU and the US about a possible restructuring of the Internet. An interesting point is Lessig’s mention of how there was an attempt to censor him at one of the WSIS preparatory conferences. He was told he could not talk about intellectual monopoly rights, because that was a topic for WIPO.
LL: I question whether the [summit] is considering all the issues it needs to be. I was a speaker at one of the preparatory committees and, before my speech, I was asked about what I was going to talk about. I said I was going to talk about the need for balanced intellectual property rules in order to produce the best information society [possible]. The chairman of my session said I was not allowed to talk about intellectual property. She said that’s a problem for the World Intellectual Property Organization. It was ridiculous. It revealed a way in which the deal was struck to establish the World Summit on the Information Society, which was as long as you don’t touch intellectual property you can talk about whatever you want. The insane thing about that position is that there’s no way to strike the right balance unless you consider intellectual property. [For example,] database rights are going to fundamentally affect the future of the information society. The question remains whether the [summit] will be allowed to develop any coherent policy position about the proper balance for intellectual property. My skepticism suggests that they won’t. This issue will be negotiated off the table by those who want to keep control over that policy.
And in Tunis you probably can’t mention hunger, because it is an issue for the World Food Programme, and neither about education, this being the domain of the UNESCO.
via netzpolitik.org – thanks, Markus!