Examples
of Excellent Copyright Policies
1.
How can UN knowledge be disseminated more efficiently?
2.
Why should most UN Publications be released in Copyleft?
3.
Seven Best Examples in Copyright Policies
4.
Why is Copyleft important and necessary for all UN publications?
5.
Statements from Kofi Annan and Dr Brundtland
6.
Your action
Releasing
most publications of UN agencies in "copyleft" domain, on low-cost cd-rom
libraries, and for free on mirrorsites in each developing country
It
can be fairly estimated that 1/3, or about 20 million pages of UN material
are very useful and contain solutions for 50% of basic world problems.
Probably as much university and NGO material is as useful. Unfortunately,
much of this UN information is copyrighted - and is either too expensive
for developing countries, not available, or, if free, requires request
or download processes that are too cumbersome for developing countries
or for anyone interested to participate
1.
There are several reasons why this knowledge is not being disseminated
and combined as it should be
*
insufficient publicity and dissemination efforts compared to what "free"
flow could achieve
*
in some UN agencies (60%) too tight , defensive copyright restrictions.
Practical difficulties that most NGOs or catalyst humanitarian entrepreneurs
face in getting permission to use the information. This is not in accordance
with Agenda 21
*
higher prices charged by UN (the 20 major UN agencies) than developing
countries can pay.
How
could we expect people and governments to implement Agenda
21 and multinationals and local companies to comply to Agenda 21 if
the information relating to solving global and local problems to the whole
world is not made freely available? From ethical and UN mandatory point
of view, all UN agencies publications have been paid for by humanity and
belong to humanity in copyleft. It would not be acceptable that they remain
too expensive and inaccessible for the majority of world's poorer countries
and -for many useful out of print publications - that they would remain
concealed as treasures in cellars or on microfiche.
2.
The positive effects of releasing all UN Publications in Copyleft?
Once
the electronic versions of the UN publications are freely available, universities
and governments of all countries can start to massively translate these
30.000 UN publications to their local languages. This local availability
will help convince local leaders, NGO and other agents to tackle basic
poverty problems.
Many
scientists, schools, NGO, decision takers and humanitarian entrepreneurs
will be able to combine all this basic practical UN agencies information
with local experience into online and low-cost cd-rom knowledge bases.
This will help to rebuild their countries, adapt local legislation, foster
sustainable education & development etc ....
Each
electronic UN agency publication should get a mention it can be used and
redistributed freely for non-commercial purposes.
3.
Seven Best Examples in Copyright Policies
These
should be applied on all publicly funded UN, Humanitarian and Development
publications
1.
SEATS publications:
In accordance with USAID regulations, all SEATS publications may be copied,
reproduced, or distributed without permission from the authors or publisher,
provided that the recipient of the information does not copy, reproduce,
distribute or adapt this text for commercial gain, and provided further
that the SEATS II Project, USAID, JSI and all corresponding affiliated
partners are credited as the sources on all copies, reproductions, and
distributions.
2.
Population Council Publications: General
Permissions Policy: Information from this Web site may be copied, reproduced,
or distributed without permission from the authors or publisher, provided
that the recipient of the information does not copy, reproduce, distribute
or adapt this text for commercial gain, and provided further that the Population
Council is credited as the source on all copies, reproductions, and distributions.
4.
The
International Institute of Rural Reconstruction publications are not copyrighted.
The institute encourages the translation, adaptation and copying of materials
for non-commercial use, providing an acknowledgement to IIRR is included."
5.
With the purpose of facilitating information transfer, permission is hereby
given for reproducing the contents of this manual, with the condition that
proper acknowledgements are made and two copies are sent to the publisher."
- (Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center, a private volunteer organization
based in the southern part of the Philippines)
6.
This
manual may be reproduced and/or translated in part or in full without payment
or royalty. Please give standard acknowledgment. (Standard addition
to each of the 148 Peace Corps ICE - Information Collection and Exchange
publications)
7.
Service
Delivery Guidelines for Family Planning, Copyright 1996-by JHPIEGO
Corporation . The material in this publication can be used or adapted freely
by anyone.
4.
The Copyleft
Principle : Why is Copyleft important and why for UN publications? (Excerpts
from the Copyleft site)
The
idea of GNU GPL copyleft can be
applied to any kind of digital information, and not just computer software.
A copyleftist or free-information movement, emcompassing the free software/open-source
movement of computer computer software, can be instrumental in engineering
a free society. Such a movement is inevitable.
Certain
restrictions of copyright -- such as distribution and modification -- are
not very useful to ``cyberia,'' the free, apolitical, democratic community
that constitutes the internetworked digital world.
With
computers, perfect copies of a digital work can easily be made -- and even
modified, or further distributed -- by others, with no loss of the original
work. As individuals interact in cyberia, sharing information -- then reacting
and building upon it -- is not only natural, but this is the only way for
individual beings to thrive in a community. In essence, the idea of copyleft
is basic to the natural propogation of digital information among humans
in a society. This is why the regular notion of copyright does not make
sense in the context of cyberia.
Simple
`public domain' publication will not work, because some will try to abuse
this for profit and deprive others of freedom; as long as we live in a
world with a legal system where legal abstractions such as copyright are
necessary, as responsible artists or scientists we will need the formal
legal abstractions of copyleft that ensure our freedom and the freedom
of others.
5.
Statements from Kofi Annan and Dr Brundtland
We
must pay tribute to Secretary-General Kofi Annan and recently Dr Brundtland
for their pronouncements on the need for free and uncontrolled access to
information and the importance of knowledge.
There
should be more action from the UN agencies to implement this copyleft policies
1.
Some words the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan delivered at the Global
Knowledge Conference:
"The
great democratizing power of information has given us all the chance to
effect change and alleviate poverty in ways we cannot even imagine today.
With information on our side, with knowledge a potential for all, the path
to poverty can be reversed.
Knowledge
is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress,
in every society, in every family. We at the United Nations are convinced
that information is a great democratizing power waiting to be harnessed
to our global struggle for peace and development.
We
believe this because we are convinced that it is ignorance, not knowledge,
that makes enemies of men. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes fighters
of children. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that leads some to advocate
tyranny over democracy. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes some
think that human misery is inevitable. It is ignorance, not knowledge,
that makes others say that there are many worlds, when we know that there
is one.
Information
and freedom are indivisible. The information revolution is unthinkable
without democracy, and true democracy is unimaginable without freedom of
information. This is information’s new frontier, this is where the
United Nations pledges its commitment, its resources and its strength."
2.
Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Secretary General of the WHO on the Healthy
Planet Conference of 18 June 1999
We
have learnt that we cannot hope for change towards sustainable development
without democracy, freedom of speech and access to information.
And
in other speeches of dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland
More
than a billion fellow human beings have been left behind in the health
revolution. A lot more dedicated work is required for us to reach health
for all.
There
is a need to be expanding the knowledge base that made the 20th
century revolution in health possible
The
challenge now is to make sure that the information which is produced
reaches those who make the critical decisions.
3.
The Arhus convention, advocated by WHO, states that ;"public participation
and access to information are increasingly recognized as essential elements
in making the much needed transition towards health-enhancing and sustainable
forms of development, it further sets out essential elements for access
to information held by public authorities, namely, a general presumption
in favour of access
4.
Additionally, this request is all about chapter
40 of Agenda 21 of the Rio declaration on sustainable development:
(sharing) information for decision making which was greatly supported by
al UN agencies
6.
Your action
We
are setting up a worldwide movement and petition to release all UN publications
and publicly funded humanitarian and development information in copyleft.
Please
contact us with your name, organization name and e-mail address if you
would like to participate in organizing this action. Please send a mail
to petition@humaninfo.org |
