The 2007 general assembly of the UN WIPO started off yesterday by grinding to a halt over accusations against WIPO director general Kamil Idris, who apparently changed his officially recorded birth date. The United States wants that issue discussed and dealt with at this year’s assembly, while the group of African countries moved to take this item off the agenda. You can read more about this at IP-Watch.org and Thiru Balasubramaniam of KEI.
So while we’re waiting for the closed door meetings to come to some kind of agreement on the agenda, allow me to share some fun that I came across while waiting.
If someone were to raise the idea that public transportation providers could reduce the amount of free riders by subjecting people to a mandatory whipping when buying a ticket, most people would probably consider that a pretty stupid idea. It seems that different standards for stupid exist on this planet, because this is precisely what the so-called "reproduction rights industry" is doing with the "piracy trailers" on its DVDs — always vastly overexaggerating and often misrepresenting the law.
So it comes as no surprise that many people felt annoyed by this and reacted in a creative way to the not so creative industries, by making alternative versions of the clips. Below is the output of the Sydney University Law Revue 2007, courtesy of Hugh Aitken. Thanks to Luisa for pointing them out to me.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is2KYGDp1Rs
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr-vvKOB0lk
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdSFe0UgB3E
My personal favorite is probably the second clip. I should also warn in particular my fellow Germans that the third clip is showing a certain lack of historic sensitivity. You have been warned.
Ah, they’re calling the assembly. Let’s see whether we have an agenda now.
