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GNU is Not Unix Your Rights Online

World Intellectual Wealth Organisation Proposed 17

Posted by michael from the talk-talk-talk dept.
wikinerd writes "Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) proposed the creation of a World Intellectual Wealth Organisation (WIWO) as an alternative to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). FSFE says that WIWO will be 'dedicated to the research and promotion of novel and imaginative ways to encourage the production and dissemination of knowledge'. The WIWO announcement is signed by 18 organisations and 29 individuals, including Dr. Richard M. Stallman."
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World Intellectual Wealth Organisation Proposed More

World Intellectual Wealth Organisation Proposed

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  • Typo (Score:3, Funny)

    by Rufus88 ( 748752 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @12:52PM (#10567316)
    The name of the proposed organization is "Gnu/WIWO".

  • Where can I donate? (Score:3)

    by HotNeedleOfInquiry ( 598897 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @01:35PM (#10567710)
    Seriously.

  • A good idea! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Max von H. ( 19283 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @01:55PM (#10567921)
    I think the WIPO stands mostly nowadays as a legal proxy to enforce big corporations' patents around the world, rather than making things equitable. Furthermore, it has consistently sided with big business in the past few years which, I believe, isn't really its primary goal (public, international organizations should NOT be at the service of a few megacorps). Look at what's happening in India with "proprietary" seeds and the resuslting extortion schemes agro-megacorps like Monsanto pull upon poor farmers "guilty" of having their fields polinized by a remote crop. Software patents are also a big topic and the WIPO has repeatedly shown whom it wants to side with (big $$$).

    The proposed WIWO clearly stands out as being more "compliant" with the idea of a global organization, such as the UN, working for the benefit of humankind. After all, we ALL contribute to the financing of these agencies since all countries pay for it through their UN contributions (or something close to it, you get the idea).

    The concept of Intellectual Property is slowly eating itself up and will, sooner or later, collapse in great mayhem. How will we evolve if all the tools and procedures belong to a few greedy corporations dictating what or can't be invented or done? We NEED to keep an eye on our technology achievements and make sure such data isn't lost in the vaults of a company that will eventually disappear with everything it ever produced. There's tons of valuable work, studies, experiences and results that will never, ever benefit anyone because of some PROFIT motivations (the pharmaceutical industry is probably one of the most guilty in this regard).

    It is an insult to humankind to deprive it from its own achievements solely on the selfish argument that "if I can't benefit from it, none shall benefit". We owe our civilization and most of its achievements to the exchange of ideas. Strangely, now that we have achieved the long-sought dream of global, instant communication we suddenly find ourselves threatened by greedy IP laws. Oh, the irony.

    It's still time to change the course of things, else we'll soon find ourselves in a world forbidding personal freedom of thought and incapable of evolving at its natural pace.

    • Re:A good idea! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by EzInKy ( 115248 )
      It is an insult to humankind to deprive it from its own achievements solely on the selfish argument that "if I can't benefit from it, none shall benefit". We owe our civilization and most of its achievements to the exchange of ideas. Strangely, now that we have achieved the long-sought dream of global, instant communication we suddenly find ourselves threatened by greedy IP laws. Oh, the irony.

      There's nothing strange about it, history is full of examples where despite there being an abundance of a thing t
      • That is true, and, those people are immoral too.

        But the situation the grandparent was outlining is different from (and IMO worse than) the historical examples you allude to for several reasons:

        • The "resource" in question is the collection of ideas--thinking itself and communication itself--the fundamentals of what it is to be who we are, of society and of being alive (as opposed to just random bits of matter)--no other resource or thing (tangible or intagible) is more important.
        • The immoral people (e.g.:
        • The concept of restricting abundance does not make sense as ideas are not finite resources--one can copy them an infinite number of times at no cost and one can create them at will. Whatsmore many people often create the same ideas independently and simultaneously.

          Copyright protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. I have stated that the system certainly needs reform, particularly the insane time limits and the lack of need of registration, but to do away with protection all together would
  • I didnt think Foundation was _that_ good of a book. Then again, I'm not much of an Azimov fan to begin with. :)
  • this us a great psting on the issue of World Intellectual Wealth Organisation

    http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/wsis-euc/2004- October/000262.html

    enjoy

  • This isn't important... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Folks, the WIPO is good enough. What we need focus our efforts on is promoting socialism, the prohibition of privately owned firearms, doubling (at least) the income and sales taxes and introducing a VAT, better arming and training of the police, building more prisons, and removing the constitution and replacing it with something more progressive such as the communist manifesto. Of course there is more such as hefty environmental regulations and the complete prohibition of self defense against common crim
  • I for one welcome our new nyud overlords.

    There will be a day when all of slashdot shall bow to them, and use their sevices for better faster internet and linkage!
    • I think Slashdot should introduce a feature in its Slash script code to enable automatic conversion of all external links to their Coral [nyu.edu] equivalents.
  • If anybody wants to learn how you can donate to FSFE you can visit this page: http://fsfeurope.org/help/donate.html [fsfeurope.org]

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