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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