ACA2K researchers are participating in this week's WIPO SCCR 19th Meeting in Geneva, which runs from 14 to 18 December.
The ACA2Kers, Perihan Abou Zeid of Egypt and Tobias Schonwetter of South Africa, have launched ACA2K Briefing Paper No. 3. And, in conjunction with research organisation IQsensato (based in Geneva), Schonwetter read a statement to SCCR.
The statement was as follows: "Thank you Mr. Chairman. I speak on behalf of IQsensato, which welcomes the opportunity to speak at this session of the SCCR. IQsensato’s purpose is to provide an international platform for promoting the research and thinking of researchers and experts to inform and shape international policy debates and discussions such as the ones taking place in this Committee. It is in this context, IQsensato has been collaborating with the African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) Project (http://www.aca2k.org/index.php/); a project that has explored for over two years, through empirical research, the relationship between national intellectual property (IP) frameworks, particularly the copyright environments, and access to knowledge in African countries. The project covers eight African countries, namely Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.
"Mr. Chairman, we are glad to share ACA2K’s findings pertaining to some of the areas covered in this session, that is, distance learning, visually impaired, and libraries and archives. These findings are discussed in detail in ACA2K’s Briefing Paper 3 made available to delegates at the 19th SCCR session.
"With regards to distance learning, although a number of institutions in the study countries have established distance learning programmes, none of the national copyright laws of the eight study countries specifically addresses distance learning. For example, Mozambique integrated distance learning as one of its special education system within its National System of Education in 1992, yet the national copyright law carries no specific provisions for exceptions in relation to distance learning. Also problematic for distance learning in Africa is the existence of provisions prohibiting the circumvention of technological protection measures (TPMs) in some national laws. Our research confirms that anti-circumvention provisions exist in six ACA2K study countries, either in the copyright statute (eg., Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Morocco) or in other associated law (eg., South Africa’s Electronic Communications and Transactions Act). Only in Morocco is there a specific exception allowing circumvention of TPMs for non-commercial purposes by libraries, archives, educational institutions and some broadcasters.
"With respect to visually-impaired persons, only one of the eight ACA2K study countries, Uganda, makes specific mention of the needs of the visually-impaired in its copyright law, while Ghana in 2007 passed a disability Act to allow exceptions and limitations for visually impaired which allowed some of their universities to convert some learning materials into Braille. In the other countries the lack of mention of the visually-impaired in copyright law in some cases contradicts other policies or laws, including constitutional rights, and conflicts with access-enabling practices such as conversion of copyright-protected materials into Braille.
"Generally, provisions related to libraries and archives have been found to be inadequate in the ACA2K study countries for facilitating meaningful access to learning materials. Other than for preservation and replacement purposes, and with the exception of Egypt and Kenya, the copying of entire works by libraries and archives is not explicitly permitted in ACA2K study countries, and there is a great deal of uncertainty in most countries as to what portions of works can be copied by libraries, and on what scale. Senegal, for example, allows libraries and archives to copy works only if they are at an advanced stage of degradation.
"Those eight study countries are examples of countries that need to incorporate into their copyright clear and access-enabling copyright E&L specific to distance learning, visually-impaired persons and library and archives. The work of this committee needs to provide a framework for the study countries to incorporate into their copyright laws such clear and access-enabling provisions - and cross-border issues are critical in this which is why the discussions related to E&L generally and with respect to a treaty for visually impaired persons should be seen as particularly important for Africa. Thank you Mr. Chairman."
Denise Nicholson
17 December 2009
More Blogs
|
