Intellectual Property Law in Eurasia

Yesterday, Berkman Center faculty provided a day of instruction in iLaw Eurasia on intellectual property law. First, Prof. Terry Fisher gave an overview of the digital media crisis. Urs Gasser then presented his research on how EU nations have adopted the European Copyright Directive (outlined in this paper). According to Urs Gasser, participants -- who came from nations like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Croatia -- were interested in using lessons from the EU and US as a preview for issues that developing nations will face in the coming years. Participants expressed particular interest in open source software and how governments can catalyze development of information and communications technology. Developing nations face challenges like software piracy, lack of a strong information economy, and the tendency of talented programmers to leave these nations for countries with stronger ICT infrastructures.