The message below, originally posted to cni-copyright listserv,
 is being cross-listed to VRA-L and ARLIS-L. This is a fun
opportunity for educated rants and original points of view.

Maryly Snow
[log in to unmask]
Architecture Visual Resources Library
University of California, Berkeley
Chair, VRA Intellectual Property Rights Committee

------------------------------------------------------------

4 September 2001      

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Fellow Activists:  

WIPOUT, an international organisation consisting of academics, 
artists, musicians, and other activists, is today (Sept. 4) 
launching the Intellectual Property Counter Essay Contest on its 
website, www.wipout.net

The multi-lingual essay contest has been organised in response to 
the World Intellectual Property Organisation's (WIPO's) own 
competition announced earlier this year. The counter contest is 
intended to challenge the over-protection of intellectual
property 
(IP) which is doing much damage to education, health care, the 
environment, and economic security for millions around the world.
 

Entrants are being asked to address the same topic that WIPO has 
posed: WHAT DOES INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MEAN TO YOU IN YOUR DAILY 
LIFE?  We expect the counter contest essays to be rather more 
critical than those that WIPO is soliciting. 

The website also has a space for shorter 'Point of View' pieces
on 
the same topic for those who have something to say, but do not
want 
to write an essay.
  
WIPOUT’s contest will continue from 4 September until 15 March
2002. 
The winning essays will be chosen by an international panel of 
judges and the results  announced on 26 April 2002, the same day 
that WIPO announces the winners of its contest. WIPOUT’s prize
fund 
currently totals £1500.00 (approx. $US2100.00).

Unlike submissions to most essay contests, WIPOUT’s essays will
be 
immediately posted on the website and accessible to all readers,
not 
just the judges. And although WIPOUT is hosting a 'contest', we
see 
the competitive aspect of the contest secondary to the purpose of 
enabling a public and critical debate on the over-protection of IP.

More than 40 groups and individuals from 10 countries have, to
date, 
announced their support for WIPOUT. (A complete list can be
viewed 
at www.wipout.net) High- profile endorsers include Noam Chomsky,
The 
Treatment Action Campaign of South Africa, the Gene Campaign of 
India, British barrister Michael Mansfield, and the Electronic 
Frontier Foundation and the Center for the Public Domain in the
US. 

WIPOUT sees the contest as a way of building on recent
high-profile 
issues such as the South African anti-HIV drugs case, the growing 
protests against the TRIPS agreement and the WTO, the Napster
saga 
(and increasing resentment against the high price of CDs), the 
arrest and charging of Dmitry Skylarov, and public concern about
GM 
crops and the patenting of human genes and plants. 

The essays can be submitted to WIPOUT in English, French, German, 
and Spanish. A selection of initial essays, submitted for judging 
purposes or for the shorter non-judged “point of view” section of 
the website, has already been posted on the website.   

Details of the WIPO contest can be found at:   
http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/alert/2001/ma03rev.htm

So what can you do? 

First, go and check our website, www.wipout.net, and look at the 
contributions already posted. Then if you want to become a part
of 
the contest and join in the campaign against the over-protection
of 
intellectual property, you can: 
 
1) Most obviously, write an essay or a 'Point of View' and submit
it 
to WIPOUT. It will then be posted on our website.  
2) Become an official endorser of the competition.
3) Make a contribution to our prize fund.  
4) If you run a website, put a link to WIPOUT on your site (a
.jpg 
button can be provided). We are happy to put a reciprocal link on 
our site.
5) If your group or organisation publishes a newsletter/magazine, 
mention our launch. We have a launch essay we can supply for you.
6) Download the Wipout poster and put it up in your workplace, 
university, school,  or local shop. 
7) Spread the word. Tell others who may be interested by
forwarding 
them this email. There are a lot of people in the world who are 
extremely unhappy with the effects of the excessive protection of 
IP. Give them the chance to say what they think

Finally, keep checking www.wipout.net in coming weeks to read the 
new submissions. It shows there are others who share your views
and 
want to do something. 

Our email address is: [log in to unmask]
--------------------------------
Dr. Lee Marshall
Department of Sociology
University College Worcester
Henwick Grove
Worcester WR2 6AJ
(01905) 855312
--------------------------------

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