To: rms@gnu.org
CC: cardis@funredes.org,
    Caribbean ICT virtual community CIVIC <icacaribbean@dgroups.org>

Richard Stallman wrote:

> Markus Kummer specifically cites a number of issues that this UN Working
> Group will investigate and then prepare a report on for 2nd WSIS Summit
> in Tunisia. The issues that he cites are: "network security,
> intellectual property rights, data protection, consumer protection,
> spam, and multi-lingualism".
>
>If the topic under discussion is "intellectual property rights", a
>thoughtful discussion is nearly impossible. Copyrights, patents, and
>trademarks are three important issues, but treating them as a single
>issue precludes intelligent thought about any of them.
>
>So we should propose people who will persistently and unyieldingly
>criticize any attempt to discuss or make statements about
>"intellectual property rights" (rather than about copyrights, about
>patents, or about trademarks).
>
>
Agreed.

>A major danger here is that they will call for software patents.
>
>
Based on this information, it's guaranteed. This is not good.

> According to Mr. Kummer, 1/3 of the people appointed will be from the
> governmental sector, 1/3 will come from business/industry, and 1/3 will
> represent civil society.
>
>I think that such a group cannot possibly reach a consensus unless it
>is bad. So we should propose people who know better than to make any
>important concession "to get agreement". People who will not treat
>certain requirements as legitimate merely because they are part of
>TRIPES(*). People who are prepared to issue their own minority
>report if it should come to that.
>
>
>For a person to participate, what concretely would he have to do? How
>many meetings would the person be expected to attend, and where, and
>when?
>
>
When someone can answer this, I'd like to know. This particular caucus
is of great importance to the participants of CARDICIS last week, and I
am passing it along so we can discuss it on that list and the CIVIC list
as well. Perhaps by discussing the issues at other levels we can deal
with the issue quickly, and perhaps even quickly enough.

-------------------------------
CARDICIS/CIVIC recipients
--------------------------------

I expected this to come up, but not so soon after CARDICIS. Our group(s)
need to discuss this at our own levels as well. For these recipients
(CARDICIS, CIVIC), we're talking about things that will affect the
sharing of content between countries and cultures, as we discussed -
only at a level which can hinder, if not block, such efforts.

-- 
Taran Rampersad
cnd@knowprose.com
http://www.knowprose.com
http://www.easylum.net
http://www.worldchanging.com
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