Lawrence Lessig writes in one post:
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was [...] to
hold a meeting about “open collaborative models to develop public
goods.” One of those models is, of course, open source and free
software. Lobbyists [...] started lobbying the US government to get
the meeting cancelled. [...]
But the astonishing part is the justification for the US opposing
the meeting. According to the
Post,
"Lois Boland, director of international relations for the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office, said 'that open-source software runs
counter to the mission of WIPO, which is to promote
intellectual-property rights.”' As she is quoted as saying, “To hold
a meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights
seems to us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.”
Ouch! The pain! The ignorance!
Intellectual property encompasses all sorts of things: Copyright, patents, trademarks – the only thing they have in common is that they are all about non-physical things – “the children of an idle brain”. Without copyright, there would be no way to copyleft free software. No GNU General Public License. Very sad. What are the people in charge thinking?
#Intellectual Property