Information on the A2K Treaty proposal
The access to knowledge treaty proposal (A2K): hyperlinked contribution
The Argentina-Brazil proposal for a development agenda gave raise to a debate on whether WIPO should ensure effective technology transfer to developing countries. As in the information society access to information is crucial for promoting creativity, an excessive protection of Intellectual Property rights in the digital environment “would obstruct the free flow of information and scuttle efforts to set up new arrangements for promoting innovation and creativity.” Non governmental organisation (NGOs), academics and researchers shared the concerns of the developing countries that copyright protection was actually putting barriers to innovation instead of promoting it and was creating disadvantages for the developing countries. This reaction to WIPO’s current policies took the form of a movement calling for equality among citizens from developed and developing countries as regards access to knowledge that became known as “access to knowledge” or “A2K” movement. Librarians’ organizations, such as iEFL, were pioneers in the advocacy of people’s “right to knowledge” and called for WIPO to establish minimum exceptions and limitations to copyright worldwide, and consideration of developing nations.
One of the proposed measures to ensure the right of individuals to access knowledge, was the acceptance of a treaty at the United Nations. This gave birth to the access to knowledge treaty proposal, the text of which is available at: http://www.cptech.org/a2k/a2k_treaty_may9.pdf
The knowledge to treaty proposal has as its objective to “protect and enhance access to knowledge, and to facilitate the transfer of technology to developing countries”. It includes a list of occasions when copyright holders will not be able to invoke their exclusive right, such as:
- The use of works for purposes of library or archival preservation, or to migrate content to a new format;
- The use by libraries, archivists or educational institutions to make copies of works that are protected by copyright but which are not currently the subject of commercial exploitation, for purposes of preservation, education or research.
- The use of relevant excerpts, selections, and quotations for purposes of explanation and illustration in connection with not-for-profit teaching and scholarship;
- The use of works, by educational institutions, as primary instructional materials, if those materials are not made readily available by right-holders at a reasonable price; provided that in case of such use the right-holder shall be entitled to equitable remuneration.
Besides the proposal introduces a First Sale Doctrine for Library Use stating that “a work that has been lawfully acquired by a library may be lent to others without further transaction fees to be paid by the library.”
Furthermore, the access to knowledge treaty proposal introduces provisions in support of distance education and other provisions accommodating the rights of persons with disabilities. Librarians aren’t the only ones who could benefit from the A2K treaty; it includes rules in favour of Internet Service Providers and it also raises the strict circumvention prohibitions that are applied by the international treaties. Non original or orphan works are in the public domain under the treaty proposal and people should have access to publicly funded research works, government works and archives of public broadcasting. Finally, the access to knowledge treaty proposal also includes provisions on patent protection, anticompetitive practices and Transfer of Technology to Developing Countries.