Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property

by Gaëlle Krikorian (Editor), Amy Kapczynski (Editor)

Overview

The end of the twentieth century saw an explosive intrusion of intellectual property law into everyday life. Expansive copyright laws have been used to attack new forms of sharing and remixing facilitated by the Internet. International laws extending the patent rights of pharmaceutical companies have threatened the lives of millions of people around the world living with HIV/AIDS. For decades, governments have tightened the grip of intellectual property law at the bidding of information industries.

Recently, a multitude of groups around the world have emerged to challenge this wave of enclosure with a new counterpolitics of “access to knowledge” or “A2K.” They include software programmers who take to the streets to attack software patents, AIDS activists who fight for generic medicines in poor countries, subsistence farmers who defend their right to food security and seeds, and college students who have created a new “free culture” movement to defend the digital commons.

In this volume, Gaëlle Krikorian and Amy Kapczynski have created the first anthology of the A2K movement, mapping this emerging field of activism as a series of historical moments, strategies, and concepts. Intellectual property law has become not only a site of new forms of transnational activism, but also a locus for profound new debates and struggles over politics, economics, and freedom. This collection vividly brings these debates into view and makes the terms of intellectual property law legible in their political implications around the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781890951962
Publisher:	Zone Books
Publication date:	11/16/2010
Series:	Zone Books
Pages:	646
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gaë lle Krikorian is a doctoral student at the É cole des Hautes É tudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and a member of the consultative board AC27 at the national research agency on HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis (ANRS).


Amy Kapczynski is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, Law School. She cofounded Universities Allied for Essential Medicines in 2002.


Amy Kapczynski is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, Law School. She cofounded Universities Allied for Essential Medicines in 2002.


Gaë lle Krikorian is a doctoral student at the É cole des Hautes É tudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and a member of the consultative board AC27 at the national research agency on HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis (ANRS).


Anil Gupta is Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University.


Laura DeNardis is Professor in the School of Communication at American University and serves as a Faculty Director of the American University Internet Governance Lab.

Table of Contents

Preface 9

Part 1 Introduction

Access to Knowledge: A Conceptual Genealogy Amy Kapczynski 17

Access to Knowledge as a Field of Activism Gaëlle Krikorian 57

Part 2 The Emergence of the Politics of A2K

The Emergence of the A2K Movement: Reminiscences and Reflections of a Developing-Country Delegate Ahmed Abdel Latif 99

The Revised Drug Strategy: Access to Essential Medicines, Intellectual Property, and the World Health Organization Ellen't Hoen 127

The Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health: An Impetus for Access to Medicines Sangeeta Shashikant 141

An Uncertain Victory: The 2005 Rejection of Software Patents by the European Parliament Philippe Aigrain 161

A2K at WIPO: The Development Agenda and the Debate on the Proposed Broadcasting Treaty Viviana Muñoz Tellez Sisule F. Musungu 175

Part 3 The Conceptual Terrain of A2K

"IP World"-Made by TNC Inc. Peter Drahos 197

The Idea of Access to Knowledge and the Information Commons: Long-Term Trends and Basic Elements Yochai Benkler 217

Access to Knowledge: The Case of Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge Carlos M. Correa 237

Undermining Abundance: Counterproductive Uses of Technology and Law in Nature, Agriculture, and the Information Sector Roberto Verzola 253

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Book Lawrence Liang 277

Free-Trade Agreements and Neoliberalism: How to Derail the Political Rationales that Impose Strong Intellectual Property Protection Gaëlle Krikorian 293

Information/Knowledge in the Global Society of Control: A2K Theory and the Postcolonial Commons Jeffrey Atteberry 329

Beyond Representation: The Figure of the Pirate Lawrence Liang 353

Virtual Roundtable on A2K Politics Amy Kapczynski Gaëlle Krikorian Onno Purbo Jo Walsh Anil Gupta Rick Falkvinge 377

Part 4 Strategies and Tactics of A2K

A Comparison of A2K Movements: From Medicines to Farmers Susan K. Sell 391

TRIPS Flexibilities: The Scope of Patentability and Oppositions of Patents in India Chan Park Leena Menghaney 415

TRIPS Flexibilities in Thailand: Between Law and Politics Jiraporn Limpananont Kannikar Kijtiwatchakul 435

Using Competition Law to Promote Access to Knowledge Sean M. Flynn 451

Open-Access Publishing: From Principles to Practice Manon A. Ress 475

The Global Politics of Interoperability Laura DeNardis 497

Back to Balance: Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright Vera Franz 517

New Medicines and Vaccines: Access, Incentives to Investment, and Freedom to Innovate Spring Gombe James Love 531

Virtual Roundtable on A2K Strategies: Interventions and Dilemmas Amy Kapczynski Gaëlle Krikorian Harini Amarasuriya Vera Franz Heeseob Nam Carolina Rossini Dileepa Witharana 547

Interview with Yann Moulier Boutang Gaëlle Krikorian 575

Nollywood: How it Works-A Conversation with Charles Igwe Achal Prabhala 595

Epilogue: A2K in the Future-Visions and Scenarios

A Copyright Thriller Versus a Vision of a Digital Renaissance Sarah Deutsch 607

Social Mutations in the Future Gaëlle Krikorian 613

The Future of Intellectual Property and Access to Medicine Eloan dos Santos Pinheiro 621

Options and Alternatives to Current Copyright Regimes and Practices Hala Essalmawi 627

The Golden Touch and the Miracle of the Loaves Roberto Verzola 633

Contributors 637

What People are Saying About This

Siva Vaidhyanathan

This is the first book of its kind. It comprehensively describes the intellectual contours of a powerful and emerging social movement and serves as a handbook for activism. The A2K movement is disparate and diverse. So assembling a volume that takes account of its various strands and influences is no small task. Gaëlle Krikorian and Amy Kapczynski have selected works from the most influential writers and practitioners of this new distributed politics. I will certainly assign this book to my 250-student survey course next year.

James Boyle

It's hard to believe that the 'definitive' book has already been written about a movement as new as A2K. It's even more unusual for an edited collection of essays to have the power of a monograph. But this collection of essays is both the definitive explanation of the access to knowledge movement and a beautifully constructed conversation about the various ideas, conceptual, political and organizational, that make it up. From Amy Kapczynski's superb overview, to Yochai Benkler's brilliant meditation on the commons, to Lawrence Liang's superbly titled 'The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Book,' the central ideas of A2K are laid out with a freshness and power that is remarkable. And the rest of the contributors in the 60+ ! essays gathered here are just as strong. This is a must-have for university libraries, but it is also something that will be read intently, tactically, and sometimes uneasily, in venues ranging from WIPO to the university classroom. Highly recommended.

Endorsement

This is the first book of its kind. It comprehensively describes the intellectual contours of a powerful and emerging social movement and serves as a handbook for activism. The A2K movement is disparate and diverse. So assembling a volume that takes account of its various strands and influences is no small task. Gaëlle Krikorian and Amy Kapczynski have selected works from the most influential writers and practitioners of this new distributed politics. I will certainly assign this book to my 250-student survey course next year.—Siva Vaidhyanathan, University of Virginia, author of The Googlization of Everything

From the Publisher

"It's hard to believe that the 'definitive' book has already been written about a movement as new as A2K. It's even more unusual for an edited collection of essays to have the power of a monograph. But this collection of essays is both the definitive explanation of the access to knowledge movement and a beautifully constructed conversation about the various ideas, conceptual, political and organizational, that make it up. From Amy Kapczynski's superb overview, to Yochai Benkler's brilliant meditation on the commons, to Lawrence Liang's superbly titled 'The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Book,' the central ideas of A2K are laid out with a freshness and power that is remarkable. And the rest of the contributors in the 60+ ! essays gathered here are just as strong. This is a must-have for university libraries, but it is also something that will be read intently,tactically, and sometimes uneasily, in venues ranging from WIPO to the university classroom. Highly recommended." James Boyle, Duke University, author of The Public Domain

Zone Books

"This is the first book of its kind. It comprehensively describes the intellectual contours of a powerful and emerging social movement and serves as a handbook for activism. The A2K movement is disparate and diverse. So assembling a volume that takes account of its various strands and influences is no small task.

Gaëlle Krikorian and Amy Kapczynski have selected works from the most influential writers and practitioners of this new distributed politics. I will certainly assign this book to my 250-student survey course next year." Siva Vaidhyanathan, University of Virginia, author of The Googlization of Everything

Zone Books

Editorial Reviews

"Like so much within the A2K debates, this comes down to a matter of opinion, political stance, economic position, and more; in short, how one views the present social reality, and what one holds as a social ideal. This collection is vitally important, then, in that there is much here to help us make our opinions more informed ones, even while it illustrates how there are no easy answers to the relevant questions."

Rain Taxi Review of Books

Amy Kapczynski and Gaelle Krikorian have compiled what could easily be considered the definitive collection of essays on the Access to Knowledge movement.

—Publishing Research Quarterly

Like so much within the A2K debates, this comes down to a matter of opinion, political stance, economic position, and more; in short, how one views the present social reality, and what one holds as a social ideal. This collection is vitally important, then, in that there is much here to help us make our opinions more informed ones, even while it illustrates how there are no easy answers to the relevant questions.

—Rain Taxi Review of Books

From the Publisher

Like so much within the A2K debates, this comes down to a matter of opinion, political stance, economic position, and more; in short, how one views the present social reality, and what one holds as a social ideal. This collection is vitally important, then, in that there is much here to help us make our opinions more informed ones, even while it illustrates how there are no easy answers to the relevant questions.

—Rain Taxi Review of Books

Reviews

Amy Kapczynski and Gaelle Krikorian have compiled what could easily be considered the definitive collection of essays on the Access to Knowledge movement.

Publishing Research Quarterly