Of Cows and
Copyright
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (MARCH 2002)
“Is
copyright a cow in the swamps?” Such was the boffo opening
gambit from a Ugandan publisher as the 5th International
Publishers Association Copyright Conference kicked
off in Accra, Ghana, on February 20. A Ugandan tale,
it turns out, tells of two families who hope to enter
the dairy industry but squabble over the business plan;
meanwhile, the cow ambles off into the swamps of Uganda
and is never seen again, prompting some to wonder whether
the beast ever existed.
Indeed, for the remainder of this three-day conference,
about 150 publishers from around the world and 100 African
publishing and copyright officials waded into the swamps
with the quixotic object of leading this wayward bovine
back to the farm. Their task was not an easy one. Marybeth
Peters, Register of Copyrights at the US Copyright
Office, observed that though American courts have
consistently upheld copyright principles as they apply
to the Internet, the public is obviously in no rush
to forego its guilty, Napster-like pleasures.
Battling rampant copyright disregard isn’t cheap, either,
according to Ian Taylor of the UK Publishers
Association, who lamented the exorbitant cost of
bringing legal proceedings against pirates and called
for stronger funding to combat piracy. And Brian
Wafawarowa of South Africa pointed out that publishing
in developing countries is often hampered by flimsy
or unenforced copyright laws, which are justified by
the “educational needs” of those countries. Wafawarowa
warned that the failure to recognize publishing as a
bona fide commercial sector in these nations may ultimately
wreak havoc on their economic and cultural foundations.
Seeking solutions to these quandaries were speakers
such as Anton Hilscher, Vice President of the
Federation of European Publishers, who outlined
steps for beefing up digital rights management, while
Eric Swanson, head of STM at Wiley, propounded
the benefits of CrossRef, a system permitting
the linking of articles from participating publishers.
Swanson suggested that the Internet’s potential can
be exploited through cooperation on technical and legal
standards on a worldwide basis — rather than cow-style
squabbling. (On that front, let us note that the WIPO
agreements go into effect on March 6.) Maurice Long,
consultant to the British Medical Publishers Group,
presented the Health Internet Project, a public-private
initiative between six major STM publishers and the
World Health Organization. This project makes
biomedical journals available to health professionals
in developing countries for a nominal fee or for free.
And on another note of hope, the Ghana Ministry of Education
announced it would secure $70 million for textbook production
and procurement, which will help local publishers boost
business and attain international standards for book
quality — another step toward cutting down the market
for pirated editions and bolstering the stature of publishing
in Africa.
In a final twist on our Ugandan cow story, the conference
also included a most interesting session on the possibility
of protecting expressions of folklore. Victor Nwankwo,
a prominent publisher from Nigeria and a tribal chief,
explained that folklore, being mostly oral and communal,
poses unique challenges to legal protection. However,
with globalization running rampant, many are concerned
about protecting traditional knowledge from commercial
exploitation. Betty Mould-Idrissu, Chief State
Attorney from Ghana, pertinently asked why western interests
are covered at the drop of a hat — such as protection
of semiconductor chips — while protracted discussions
simply seem to push folklore protection further into
the muck. Publishers are advised to stay tuned to this
contentious debate.
We
thank IPA Legal Counsel Carlo Scollo Lavizzari for his
contribution to this report.
©2002
Publishing Trends
