Book People Archive

A call for essays on copyright

In response to the WIPO essay request, wipout.net has set up an 
alternate essay contest about intellectual property. The following is a 
short clip from their website (http://www.wipout.net/home_eng.html):

In March 2001, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) 
launched an international student essay competition. Students were asked 
to submit essays with the title 'What does intellectual Property mean to 
you in your daily life?'. It is obvious that WIPO are expecting a number 
of self-congratulatory essays detailing the plentiful benefits of 
intellectual property (IP). Anyone who writes an essay which says that 
IP means:

"I can't purchase anti-HIV drugs because of patent law"
or,
"as a farmer, I can't get access to patent-protected seeds for planting"
or,
"as a teacher, I can't distribute materials to my students due to 
copyright restrictions"


is unlikely to win a prize from WIPO, no matter how well argued or valid 
their essay was.

If there are enough people who want to write such essays, there should 
be a place where they can submit them. And so we at Wipout have 
organised a counter-essay contest. We are using the same title as the 
WIPO contest, but we encourage slightly more critical responses to the 
question of how intellectual property affects us all in our daily lives. 
This website is the place where the essays will be posted.



I just thought you might like to know.

Ryan

[Moderator: The Wipout contest was mentioned here in September, and essay
 submissions are being accepted until 15 March 2002.  Entrants do not
 have to be university students (as they do for the WIPO contest).

 The original WIPO contest, which this contest is a response to, has a
 submission deadline of 1 December, and is limited to university students.
 Instructions for submitting to the WIPO contest can be found at
 http://www.wipo.int/academy/en/essayrev.htm - JMO]