... Intellectual property rights can foster economic and social development. The Broadcast Treaty in its current form will not help to reach these aims and does not, in our understanding, comply with the decision of the 2006 General Assembly.
The undersigned organisations represent a broad set of constituencies with a direct interest in the discussions underway regarding an international instrument relating to broadcasting. Whilst we remain unconvinced that a treaty is necessary at all – and note that no convincing evidence has been presented that new international norms are required in this area – we do believe that a focussed, signal-protection-based Instrument to prevent piracy could be valuable. ...
"... This year, the US Federal Trade Commission has announced that now in the US, online data mining is the number one crime. Privacy experts, in particular, EPIC, have testified that it is the Whois database that is one of the most significant contributors to this problem. We need to pay some attention to the security interests of ordinary, everyday Internet users who register domain names, and not just the large intellectual property rights holders. They have legal mechanisms at their disposal if someone is violating their rights. It's called due process of law. I really haven't heard any explanation for why legal due process should be circumvented in this case. ..."
Join ICANN's Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) on 5 Dec. at the ICANN Board Meeting in Sáo Paulo, Brazil for a discussion on ICANN's Whois personal database policy and its implication for the privacy rights of Internet users.
The undersigned public interest organizations wish to request a public and recordable meeting with the US delegation to WIPO before the Special Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization's Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), First Session January 17, 2007 to January 19, 2007 (Geneva, Switzerland). The undersigned respectfully request that the USPTO or/and the Library of Congress (LOC) invite formal public comments on the proposal to create a new International Treaty obligation establishing a novel intellectual property regime for broadcasting and cablecasting organizations, through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). We believe it is important to have public comments on the impact on U.S. law and affected constituencies if the U.S. or any other country were to ratify a new WIPO Treaty embodying that proposal.
The inaugural meeting of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is officially over, but it is really only the beginning. An outgrowth of 2003-2005 World Summit of Information Society (WSIS), the IGF, a 4-day multi-stakeholder dialogue forum for policy issues related to "Internet Governance", was held 30 October - 2 November 2006 in Athens, Greece, the birthplace of democracy. Over 1500 participants from governments, civil society, and business came from all corners of the world with a vision of building an "Internet for Development", the meeting's official theme. Internet policy discussions were grouped into 4 main categories: openness, security, diversity, and access. Each of 4 policy themes were discussed in a main plenary session and a number of complementary workshops. ...
Today at the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF), I participated on the Internet Bill of Rights Workshop to discuss the creation of an “Internet Bill of Rights†to articulate the global rights and duties of Internet users from the viewpoint of the individual. Check out some video clips from the workshop ...
A bill of rights for the internet age has been proposed at a United Nations' conference in Athens. The bill would update and restate rights that have been enshrined for centuries, said Robin Gross of civil liberties group IP Justice. The proposal was made at the Internet Governance Forum, at which the future of the net is being discussed. "The rights we have enjoyed in the traditional age must move with us to the digital age," said Ms Gross.
Sun Microsystems Inc and like-minded organizations will promote the use of open standards, including the OpenDocument Format much feared by Microsoft Corp, at the Internet Governance Forum summit this week in Athens, Greece. The company, along with supporters including IP Justice and the Consumer Project on Technology, will urge governments to adopt procurement practices that recognize open technology standards as important, and forbid buying only proprietary technology.
The inaugural meeting of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) takes place in Athens, Greece from 30 October – 2 November 2006. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has convened the forum to build multi-stakeholder dialogue on Internet policy issues. Over 1500 participants from around the world are expected to attend the forum to identify emerging issues and make recommendations intended to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the Internet. In May 2006, Annan appointed IP Justice Executive Director Robin Gross to the IGF Advisory Group to help shape the policy dialogue. “The IGF was created out of recognition that the Internet has connected the world’s people together like never before, and we must work together to build an Internet that fosters a free flow of information, innovation and development for all,†said Robin Gross. Together with a number of other NGOs, industry and governments, IP Justice is co-sponsoring three workshops at IGF on the topics of “An Internet Bill of Rightsâ€, “Access to Knowledge and Freedom of Expression†and “Open Standardsâ€. Details on the 3 workshops are below....