Transcript - A2Knetwork.org

a2k in Southern Africa
• Lessons from the campaign 2004-2005
• What next?
Southern Africa
The environment:
GDP/Capita
($)
GDP
($ b)
UNDP Education Index
Rank (out of 177)
Botswana
3080
5.3
128
South Africa
2299
104.2
119
Namibia
1463
2.9
126
Swaziland
1091
1.2
137
Lesotho
402
0.7
145
Obstacles to a2k
• Copyright legislation
• IP in trade agreements
• Procurement inefficiencies
• Publishing industry history
Education
South Africa:
•
Economics
65% of households live on less than R 19000 per year (<$3000)
•
Schools
• In South Africa’s 27,148 schools:
• 12% have computers
• 43% have electricity
• 20% have libraries
•
ICT Access
• 1 in 20 South Africans has access to the internet
• Telecommunication rates are among the highest in the world
Affordability
SA
India
UK
US
$ 21.70
$ 6.50
$ 10.15
$ 10.15
SA
India
UK
US
$ 23.70
$ 13.50
$ 16.30
$ 11.60
What does Long Walk to Freedom really cost?
As a percentage of GDP/ Capita in USA – 0.2%
As a percentage of GDP/ Capita in SA – 6.5%
Imagine paying $ 365 for this book in the USA!
SA
India
UK
US
$ 44.61
$ 12.50
$ 24.00
$ 20.46
Copyright legislation
South Africa:
•
Limited fair dealing, cumbersome regulations
•
No licensing for access to marginalised learners (students with
sensory disability, indigenous language learners, distance
learners)
•
Compulsory licensing guidelines unclear and never used
•
Competition policy yet untested; anti-competitive practices
flourish in the publishing industry
The impact
Copyright legislation
•
Excessive pricing makes learning materials inaccessible
•
Small/ non-existent educational publishing market in
indigenous languages and alternative formats
Procurement Inefficiencies (i.e. stuff beyond IP…)
•
Result in a situation where only 1 in 5 students in the country
actually owns her textbooks
IP in trade agreements
EFTA
(NO IP)
AGOA
(TRIPS)
SACU
4 developing countries (SA,
Botswana, Namibia,
Swaziland) + 1 least
developed country (Lesotho)
US FTA
(TRIPs PLUS)
EU – TDCA
(TRIPS)
US-SACU Free Trade Agreement
TRIPs Plus demands in the US-SACU FTA:
•
Extension of copyright term
•
Limits on compulsory licensing
•
No parallel trade
•
No circumvention of TPMs
•
Governments can be directly sued by corporations
Luckily, as of June 2006, the US SACU FTA negotiations are dead!
Procurement
•
SA Department of Education spends $ 300 million annually to
purchase textbooks for schools...
Department of
Education
(Central
Government)
Provincial
Governments
Individual
Schools
PUBLISHERS
•
But the actual buying is done by several entities and there is
minimal price negotiation
a2k Southern Africa: Strategy
A mesh of coordinated strategies:
•
Research
• State of access to learning materials
• Domestic/ regional IP law analysis
• Feasibility of using competition law to regulate publishing
•
Advocacy
• IP reform locally and globally
• Open access content policy promotion
•
Mobilization
• Consumers, teachers and students
a2k Southern Africa: The structure
Advocacy:
Self-determination:
IP reform and policies
on open content,
locally/ regionally
Implementing open
content usage projects,
increasing open content
creation
Local
coalition
Research:
Mobilisation:
The state of access to
learning materials,
feasibility of a
competition policy
complaint
Grassroots support
What next?
• Education  IP links to be built and made stronger
• More representation from consumers, teachers and students
• Expand the definition of “knowledge”
• Learn from access to medicines
• Global coalitions on a2k
Education  Intellectual Property
•
More links with education activists and NGOs?
•
Action Aid and OSI are attempting a first step towards this
Less technocrat-driven
•
More consumers, users, teachers and students!
Expand “knowledge”
•
Singapore: “Be creative. Now.”
“To make its creative economy work, Singapore wants to nurture its arts, film, music,
theater and literary community to create a vibrant creative class, Lee said.
Singapore's Esplanade on the Bay, a giant concert hall and theater opened in 2002
and signifies the country's efforts to become a major arts center.
The Singapore government has also read social theorist Richard Florida's book "The
Rise of the Creative Class'" and hired him as a consultant.”
•
For the rest of us, creativity tends to be an unpredictable thing; so
lets encourage and include “useless knowledge”
Lessons from access to medicines
•
Mobilizing mass public support has proved to be crucial
•
Movements have been led by affected users
•
Industry lobbies are not invincible
•
Even so, domestic legal change can take time
Global coalitions on a2k
•
How about a specific campaign on…
…Banning the banning of piracy
CI: Indonesia
…it is said that the lack of sustained enforcement on book piracy and photocopying has
benefited the users, giving them access to cheap educational materials. As admitted
by many students, photocopying is indeed their main means of gaining access to
textbooks that they cannot afford. It would be a problem for the students if the
government were to start prosecuting commercial photocopying shops for copyright
violation.
UNCTAD/ICTSD: Southern Africa
…We conclude that currently, neither does copyright legislation in SACU countries make
significantly positive provisions for access to learning materials, nor does it take full
advantage of the flexibilities provided by TRIPs. Ironically, it is precisely in this
disabling legal environment that the SACU countries are being asked – by domestic
and international publishing industry lobbies – to strengthen the enforcement of
criminal sanctions for certain copyright violations, even as they constitute an access
mechanism in a context that offers few alternatives.
…Banning the banning of piracy
•
Is domestic copyright law TRIPs plus?
•
Does it promote a2k?
•
No?
•
Then ban the enforcement of criminal sanctions for piracy
•
Until every other aspect of TRIPs compliance that promotes a2k is
implemented